Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stonestreet.
Well, Sunday's memorial service for Charlie Kirk might have been the largest evangelistic event in human history. Not every speaker at the event was in tune with the gospel, of course, but those who were stated it with clarity and boldness. The tens of thousands of people who attended live, along with the millions who watched online, heard Chris Tomlin praise the name above all names, and Pastor Rob McCoy offer an invitation to accept Christ as Savior. And that was just in the first half hour. Before it was all over, Vice President J.D.
Vance talked publicly about his faith, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio beautifully summarized the entire Christian message in just under two minutes. After describing the final moments of Kirk's life, apologist and Kirk mentor Frank Turek stated bluntly, and I quote, Charlie's not in heaven because he sacrificed his life for Jesus. He's in heaven because Jesus sacrificed his life for Charlie. And of course, most powerfully, Erica Kirk, speaking of the man who killed her husband, said this, quote, on the cross, our savior said, Father forgive them for they know not what they do That young man I forgive him because it what Christ did and what Charlie would do The answer to hate is not hate The answer we know from the gospel is love and always love, end quote. Look, if this murderer hoped to silence Kirk's growing influence, he only amplified it further.
What Joseph said to his brothers seems to apply here as well. You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what's now being done, the saving of many lives. Or, as John said in the prologue to his gospel, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. At the memorial service, hundreds of people indicated that they had accepted the invitation to follow Jesus Christ. Ever since Kirk's death, more and more people are finding their way to church, many for the first time.
And in a widely shared and discussed video, a man who had never owned a suit before talks of being inspired by Charlie to be a better husband and father, and then to return to church. Proudly modeling the new suit that his wife bought him, he says, I'm going to try, y'all. Those of us who watched Chuck Coulson collapse on stage as he gave his final speech experienced it as a kind of calling. Chuck, many said at the time went out with his boots on That same thing now being said of Charlie Kirk and on a much larger scale many are perceiving this moment as a kind of calling as well to be more engaged in their churches and communities to be bold about sharing their faith to take a stand for truth to be a better husband and father And that's great because in every cultural moment, God is calling his people to be agents of renewal.
So we need to wrestle with what that means today for us. Being an agent of renewal will include advancing what's good, opposing what's evil, working to restore what's broken, offering what's most needed but missing. Living faithfully as his people in this moment will involve both condemning the evil of murder and explaining the beauty of offering forgiveness to a murderer. It will mean speaking the truth at great cost while recognizing that the deceivers and the deceived are both made in the image of God. It will mean celebrating that God is bringing sinners to repentance, even if we're unsure about how it's happening.
It will mean having the courage to speak the truth, as well as the humility to learn truth. It'll mean loving our neighbors and loving our enemies, even if, as G.K. Chesterton quipped, they're the same people. Like in any other moment, the gospel clarifies who we are and what we are called to be. Christ's demands can sound especially unreasonable and extreme in moments like this, but Paul was clear We should not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good Do not he wrote repay anyone evil for evil Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone If it possible as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it's written, it's mine to avenge, I will repay, says the Lord. On the contrary, if your enemy's hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him something to drink. We'll be able to live this way only if we are resting in the truths that this world belongs to God, that we belong body and soul to Christ who loved us and gave himself for us, that even when we were his enemies, Christ died for us. This is the truth about us.
It's the truth about everything. If this is indeed a turning point for our culture, as some have said, and we all should hope, our work has to be anchored in the true turning point of all of human history. Our work is grounded in the work of Christ. We forgive because we're forgiven. We love because he first loved us.
We stand for what's true and right because the one who is true and righteous altogether has made himself known to us. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stonestreet with Breakpoint. For a version of this commentary that you can download, print out, or share with others, go to breakpoint.org.
