The world takes notice when Christians forgive because such forgiveness seems impossible.
Millions of people have no doubt now viewed at least a smattering of clips from Charlie Kirk’s memorial service this weekend, including the moment when Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika, publicly forgave her husband’s murderer just 11 days after his assassination. I watched the clip on Sunday night several times, and each time, tears filled my eyes: “On the cross, our Savior said: ‘Forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ That young man: I forgive him,” she said.
As many have already stated in a myriad of ways concerning Kirk’s words, forgiveness lies at the heart of Christianity. Over the past several years, I’ve found myself captivated by other similar public proclamations of forgiveness from Christians - from the church members of Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston to the shooter who killed nine of their members, to Brandt Jean’s pronouncement of forgiveness and physical embrace of the police officer who wrongly shot his unarmed brother, Botham Jean, in Dallas. Whether in Charleston, Dallas, or at a memorial service in Phoenix, the world takes notice when Christians forgive because such forgiveness seems impossible. The words of forgiveness uttered by Christians should rightly make us stop and ask, “How, and why, is this possible?”
And already we see people wondering just that. One former Muslim woman mused online:
I cannot imagine myself standing on a stage, sending love to those who cheered your husband’s murder, or inviting others to spread God’s love in response because, as [Erika] said, “we do not respond to hate with hate”…Again, I am ignorant when it comes to Christianity, but if this is what it truly embodies, then I am envious of those who get to experience that feeling.
The comments on her post were full of Christians stating that she, too, could have something greater than just a feeling, but life, forgiveness, and Christ himself. So what is forgiveness, and why is it so central to the Christian faith? If you find yourself in awe of such expressions of Christian forgiveness, here are a few highlights on the topic from Scripture itself:
All forgiveness belongs to God
God’s forgiveness is the removal of sin and therefore also the release of sinners from the penalties of sin (guilt, death, hell, and the wrath of God). When God forgives, he not only forgets trespasses but he removes them from the wrongdoer altogether (Psalm 103:12). Because God is holy and righteous (meaning he is wholly other than us, his creatures), only he can forgive sin (Mark 2:7, Luke 5:21). And Scripture tells us that he does just that because forgiveness is a part of who he is:
“I, I am he
who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,
and I will not remember your sins” (Isa. 43:25).
God gives forgiveness freely through Christ Jesus
Forgiveness belongs to God alone, and so we might expect him to guard it and use it sparingly. Yet, astonishingly, he gives it freely (and some might even say, recklessly) in Christ.
Although he is completely other than us, his creatures, he has graciously chosen to share his holiness with us, becoming fully creature himself in the incarnation of his son Jesus Christ. And in order for us to receive this holiness, Christ first took on our sin through his death on the cross as 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” This leads directly to a deeper reality: forgiveness is not just something Christians do, it is a part of who we are in Christ.
Only the forgiven can forgive
Many online have praised Erika Kirk for her strength in publicly forgiving. And while her courage is indeed remarkable, it’s not human strength that produces forgiveness. Only those who know their own sin and their desperate need for a Savior can forgive others, including their enemies.
Scripture makes this link again and again: “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matt. 6:12). Jesus warns, “If you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matt. 6:15). Read in isolation, these words might sound as if God’s forgiveness is conditional. But taken in light of the gospel, they reveal the one-way direction of grace: God forgives us first, freely and fully, so that we might become conduits of that same forgiveness to others. As Paul says, “Forgive one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Eph. 4:32). Jesus’ parable of the unforgiving servant (Matt. 18:21–35) drives the point home: those who receive mercy are set free from the ledgers of lawkeeping to extend mercy. Forgiveness flows from God to us, and only then through us.
Forgiveness from sin frees us to see ourselves and others as they truly are: creatures loved by their Creator, human beings made to be in relationship with their good Father. As Robert Kolb and Charles Arand put it:
“The liberating power of forgiveness, or reconciliation, or adoption, or atonement, resting on what Christ has done for us, has brought us back to being real human beings. That is the identity he has given us, and from that identity flow the works that make his love and his will real in our world.” (pg. 157)
When Jesus talks about forgiveness, he never says forgive based on how sorry the person who has wronged you behaves or seems. Instead, he says forgive because you are forgiven. Christian forgiveness is not mustered up through personal piety or strength; instead, it is simply a reality of the new identity we receive in Christ. Through our faith in him, we are released from our own trespasses and thus we have no need to hold on to the sins of others, either. Forgiven people forgive. To be called forgiven, justified, fully human, and righteous on account of Christ is to live according to the reality that has no place for scorekeeping our righteous acts nor bookkeeping our debtor’s transgressions.
Christian forgiveness is not mustered up through personal piety or strength; instead, it is simply a reality of the new identity we receive in Christ.
An Inheritance of Forgiveness
Christian forgiveness does not minimize the seriousness of sin or erase the need for justice. Rather, it releases us from the burden of vengeance and entrusts judgment to God (Romans 12:19). It also might not happen on such an extraordinary timeline as Kirk’s. Be wary of placing forgiveness - from someone else, for someone else, or by someone else - within your own preconceived timetable. And yet if you are struggling to forgive, pray for forgiveness to come quickly. Hold fast to the truth that you have been forgiven just as much as the one who needs your forgiveness. Trust that even when forgiveness seems impossible, you are already forgiven in Christ. Forgiveness is always worth your time, and bitterness will always be a thief of your time.
Trust that even when forgiveness seems impossible, you are already forgiven in Christ.
Christians confess that Christ has both the first and the final word when it comes to judgment, sin, and forgiveness. Your identity in Christ—given through his word of promise—is more fundamental and eternal than any evil done to you. Christ secured this identity for you when he went willingly to suffer and die on account of your sins, rising again to remake you according to his righteousness. No matter how small and unassuming, or mighty and profound it may seem, we can and should give thanks anytime we see God’s forgiveness enacted in our world because all true forgiveness flows from the forgiveness Christ has won for you on the cross. This is the inheritance of all who confess him in word and deed.
