There are few sins that are more serious than the taking of a human life.  The only one that I can think of right now is that of leading someone’s soul astray.  Unfortunately, both sins are far too common these days.  But frankly, I shouldn’t have added those words “these days”.  I am getting to be an old man and I have the old man’s disease of commenting negatively on current events as though they don’t include me.  But they do.

This week, a super-star in the conservative movement was gunned down by an assassin’s bullet.  The death of Charlie Kirk has the capacity to change our world in ways that we cannot now predict.  It has thrown us all into a mental and emotional space where we don’t know where to place our hopes or our dreams for the future.  I remember being 8 years old and sitting in class at John W. Carpenter Elelmentary School when the announcement was made that president Kennedy had been shot.  There are not a lot of things that I remember from that far back and the one that struck us this week may rank up there with that one. 

This question was asked of me long before Charlie’s death and that has made me rethink my answer.  As I remember Charlie Kirk one of the things that stand out for me was that he took upon himself the mission of turnng the young people into truth seekers.  He met publicly with young people and debated them openly.  His technique was not only effective, but it was simple and very profound.  All he did, at the end of the day, was invite young people to discover for themelves the truth.  It is like the choice in the movie The Matrix between the red pill and thr blue pill.  And someone saw that as dangerous enough to kill him.

So then the question comes to me, “Do I believe that that people that commit murder will be forgiven?  In short, no I do not believe that.  But that is only because of the way that the question is asked.  The question, as presented, is “will be forgiven”.  It does not offer any conditions or require the guilty to be sorry in any way.  The question seems to assume that God forgives sin unconditionally.  We speak of unconditional love, and we beieve that God does that, but does that necessarily translate into unconditional forgiveness?  I think not.

The constant refrain of the New Testament is repent of your sins.  This strange idea of unconditional forgiveness seems to invalidate the entire witness of scripture.  It substitutes truth for comfort.  It would be nice to think that God forgives us all of our sins whether we repent of them or not.  It would be comforting to think that we can stand defiant before God on Judgement Day and proclaim boldly and proudly, as the song says, “I did it my way.”  But that is not God’s way.

I believe that God loves us completely and unconditionally.  And I believe that God forgives all sins that we are regretful for and repentant of.  But in creation, God gave us one gift that makes all of the difference, and that is the gift of free choice.  You and I have the freedom, and the corresponding responsibility, to choose who our god will be. And usually that choice boils down to choosing as our own personal God, either the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Jesus Christ, the maker of Heaven and Earth, or the God who dwells within each of us, in our Pride and in our self-delusion, the god who is so small that he exists between our ears, the god of Me.

I come from the Me generation.  I know this tiny god.  I am tempted by this tiny god every day.  Charlie Kirk was a mighty man of valor.  He sought to recover for His Lord a generation that had been deceived into slavery to the tiny god that resides in each of us.  I hope that what comes of his death is a renewal, in this world, in our commitment to Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and who calls us out of our tiny world and into the fellowship of the saints in light.