from the Berean call July newsletter:
 
Question: There are many who advocate that a born-again believer in Christ
can commit
suicide and still be saved. They stress the fact that there is only one sin
that
God will not forgive: blaspheming the Holy Spirit. They use King Saul,
Samson,
and Judas Iscariot. My thought on this is that no saint can/could ever give
up on
life, self, or God because His Spirit is in them and is the Life of the
believer.
The works of the flesh are described in Galatians 5:19-21a. Could you
explain the
differences between these three men (Samson, Judas, and King Saul) as to
what their
deaths proved? Is it possible for a saint to commit suicide?

Response: The answer to your question has little to do with King Saul,
Samson, nor
especially Judas. The answer is predicated upon this biblical absolute:
Everyone
who is truly born again, who has by grace alone through faith alone believed
that
Jesus paid the full penalty for one's sins (which He did--past, present, and
future!)
has therefore received the gift of eternal life.

One might as well ask if a saint of God could commit adultery, steal, or
even murder.
Tragically, it has proved to be possible for Christians to commit all manner
of
wickedness. Such is the nature of mankind, whose heart is "deceitful above
all things,
and desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9). As such a person goes through life
and,
for whatever reasons, is overtaken by the world, the flesh, or the
devil--even
to the point of suicide--his fruitfulness in life and his eternal rewards
will be
affected, but it cannot affect his gift of eternal life, which he neither
earned
nor could pay for.

A believer who is truly saved and maturing in Christ should not desire to
commit
any sin. The Word of God abounds in exhortations directed at believers to
live
their temporal life for Christ, to fight the good fight of faith, to beware
of the
wiles of the devil, who goes about seeking whom he may devour, etc. There
would
be no such admonitions directed at believers if they were immune to those
things
that would shipwreck their faith. But as God's Word repeatedly affirms, we
are
assured that His gift of eternal life extends even to those saints who fail.