The beauty of Erika Kirk forgiving that young man is not because she’s so noble, so smart, so above everyone else. I am certain she’d say she’s not any of those things. I am sure she’d express her need for Jesus along with everyone else. The beauty of this act of forgiveness is because it (1) points people to the gospel, and (2) it shows the world that the power, mercy, and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is bigger than the murderer’s sin. 

“Our Savior said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they not know what they do.’ That young man … I forgive him,” Erika Kirk said. “I forgive him because it was what Christ did, and it’s what Charlie would do.”

How is this even possible? Let’s zero in on what Erika said. We forgive because that’s what Christ did. That doesn’t mean forgiveness is easy; it doesn’t even mean it feels right—forgiving someone in this circumstance won’t feel right to our flesh—but it means it’s possible and is the Christlike thing to do.

Timothy Keller once wrote,

Forgiveness is a form of voluntary suffering. In forgiving, rather than retaliating, you make a choice to bear the cost.

Erika Kirk, by forgiving that young man who murdered her husband, is taking on suffering. Instead of wishing death upon the man, instead of retaliating, she is forgiving. She is taking the weight of it all; she is bearing the cost. And that is a clear picture of what Jesus did for us. It’s beautiful.

Forgiveness is so beautiful because the victim is taking the cost that the offender should bear. It’s beautiful because that ultimately points to the forgiveness we find in the gospel.

Which brings up the question, How does God forgive us? Does He wave a magic wand and pronounce us forgiven out of thin air? Does He simply to decide to let things—our sin—go? No, of course not.

God is able to forgive us because of the sin-bearing, wrath-absorbing death of Christ. Setting aside Jesus’s perfect life for a moment which secured our righteousness in Him, when Jesus died on the cross, He wasn’t merely dying—He was taking on the full brunt of the Father’s wrath—for you.

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