Excerpt from Fragile and Flourishing - Chapter 9: On Suicide

Can someone be a Christian and want to end their life or be a true Christian if they’ve followed through on suicide? The short answer is yes. But, let me offer you a longer answer as to why.

It has been a historical Christian perspective that if you end your own life, you are destined for hell. This would be because you don't have an opportunity to repent of the sin of murder. This absence of confession and repentance would lead to no forgiveness, and therefore eternal damnation. There are at least two problems with this perspective: selfjustification and inconsistency.

Justification is a theological term used by Christians to mean that we are saved from the penalty of our sin; the penalty for which is death and hell. This is because Christ already paid the penalty by experiencing it on our behalf. Once you have put your faith in Jesus, you are justified. The eternal consequence of your sins has been dealt with completely. None of this is because of anything you have done. It is all because of what Jesus has done on the cross.

If we hold to the perspective that we have to formally say that we’re sorry for every sin we commit before we die to be saved from its penalty, then the cross of Christ is no longer the source of justification. We are. The truth is that Christ died once and for all sin - past, present and future - whether it is verbally repented of or not.

Another problem with this perspective is that it’s inconsistent, meaning that we don’t apply the same thought process to other sins. What if I stole something or lusted after someone or lied or gossiped or killed someone and then I got hit by a truck and died? There was still no opportunity to confess and repent, so did I lose my salvation then?

Its inconsistency also lies in the reality of unknown or unintentional sin. What about the sins that we don’t know we have committed? I will probably die with unconfessed sin in my life via ignorance. Do I stand before God as condemned? Does sin ever make us lose our standing with God?

No. 

Hallelujah!

Excerpt from Fragile and Flourishing - Chapter 9: On Suffering

Another widespread view amongst Christians is that mental health problems and mental illness are a result of sin in the person's life and that if they just had a stronger faith in Jesus, they wouldn't suffer in this way.

This is a really narrow and damaging perspective. The reality is that suffering itself is a result of original sin—that of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden—and it can come at us in different ways. There's brokenness in the created world, leading to natural disasters, illnesses and death (Rom 8:20-22, 2 Cor 4:16, Gen 2:17). There's suffering caused by demonic attack, which is specific spiritual assault to cause one to turn away from following Jesus (Eph 6:12).We also have people sinning against us that can contribute to suffering in our lives (Gen 6:5). In addition, we have the limitations of just being human that is experienced as weakness and pressure (2 Cor 11:28). And then, we have indwelling sin: the constant temptation to not obey God (Gal 5:16). And lastly, there's suffering that comes as a consequence of own our sinful decisions, as well (Ps 16:5).Do you see how great the breadth of suffering is? And do you see how the different sources of suffering interplay with mental health problems and mental illness?

Let's use myself as a case study since you know my story fairly well by now. My experience of mental illness as suffering relates to the brokenness of my own body in regards to brain chemistry (I realised this when I started taking medication and saw a significant difference in my ability to control my thoughts).

The sin of divorce in my family has also contributed to my experience of mental illness as a significant trigger. There’s an added factor of just coming up against my own human limitations in regards to energy and strength. It’s hard to know if every thought I have during my anxiety attacks and suicidal episodes are my own or from negative spirits (demons), but I think some are.  I can honestly say that there is the issue of sin in my case as well. There is the reality of me yielding to my own indwelling sin resulting in my not believing what God has said about me and the world I live in.

I don't want you to hear me saying that the person suffering from mental illness and mental health problems is completely sinless. In my life, that wouldn't be true. I think that that underestimates how insidious and deceptive our sin nature can be. I just want us to understand that personal sin is rarely the only thing taking place when someone is suffering that way and, sometimes, it's not the consequence of a person's sinful choice at all.

Living as renewed humans in a broken physical and spiritual world is far more complex than that.