Repent & Believe the Gospel: The Christian Response to Charlie Kirk’s Assassination

I did not know Charlie Kirk; I never had the opportunity to meet Charlie Kirk; and, to be quite honest, Charlie didn’t rank highly among the conservative voices I find myself regularly listening to. I’m not even American. Though, I did frequent his content more than occasionally, and I respected him deeply.

All that to say, Charlie Kirk and I were not friends. However, as two souls united to Christ through faith, he and I were and are brothers. I say are brothers because Charlie is now more alive than he ever was—the past tense does not apply to the man or woman who dies in Christ. Indeed, a mere bullet could not stop this man from living—for Christ Himself said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (John 11:25). And though I never met him, I have full confidence that one day I will.

Charlie was a giant in American politics, and, in my opinion, not a small one in the faith as well.

And for all the good that Charlie did in his short thirty-one years, both politically and culturally, it is because he is my fellow brother in Christ that I feel a particular weight in my chest as I write these words. Indeed, a weight that has slowly nestled itself into my heart ever since my wife broke the news to me that he had been shot, only to die very shortly thereafter.

As soon as it was confirmed that Charlie had passed into the embrace of our Lord, the One whom he loved so dearly, I must admit that a fire broke out within me; a white-hot, righteous indignation at the wicked soul who could commit such a monstrous act in front of Charlie’s wife and children, and countless others; a loathing for the ideology of those who could celebrate such a heinous sin—but perhaps most of all, a deep sense of aching and sadness over the fallen world around us and the crippling consequences of death that still linger in the vestiges of even redeemed souls.

And then, even as the anger was still rising within, a sort of pity overcame me; a pity for those so blinded by the darkness that they would cheer the death of a young husband and father for simply committing the crime of disagreeing with them; and a pity for the warped image-bearer who, though they surely deserve justice, was driven by their sin to such a degree that they murdered another image-bearer. In that moment—and since then, a series of moments—I repented of the loathing and hate that was clawing a foothold in my heart, and sincerely asked the Lord for a heart to consider these matters in a way that reflected His own.

This morning, September 11th, 2025, I opened my grade eleven Law class with a heartfelt and distinctly Christian discussion about yesterday’s events. Having had last evening and most of my morning dedicated to thinking through Charlie’s passing, there were some things on my mind that I wanted to share with my students. I had the opportunity to contextualize Charlie’s death not as a matter of political right versus political left, but as a matter of good and evil, a matter of light and dark. As I considered my brother in Christ before these young students, I was able to do just that: by God’s grace, to reorient their perspectives away from the noise of this world towards the Kingdom of Christ, towards the very real evil we do battle with in this world—an evil that Jesus alone has the answers to.

Some of my students engaged in this morning’s conversation with maturity and kindness, for which I am thankful; a few others, not so much. However, it was within these conversations that a remarkably simple truth struck me, a truth so simple yet so profound that I should have settled on it the moment I heard the news of Charlie Kirk’s assassination: the political right and the political left, or so-called ‘Third Way-ism’, scarcely have more answers for yesterday’s tragedy than the other. If politics could save the world, God would have sent us a politician—instead, He sent us His only Son. What this world needs most is the Gospel. Indeed, that’s what Charlie was preaching all along.

The assassination of Charlie Kirk was a tragedy, one that will undoubtedly scar the American nation for generations. However, even in the midst of such darkness, let us not forget the Gospel—Charlie never did, for it was upon his very lips only minutes before he died. Let us pray for the loved ones of the man who was shot and for the one who took the shot itself. Make no mistake, once the murderer is captured and tried in a court of law, they should be swiftly executed. God’s law makes that much plain: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in His own image” (Genesis 9:6).

Indeed, that is justice. The State bears not the sword in vain, and we bear not the image of God in vain. State-sanctioned execution is God’s good gift to a fallen world, a fallen world in which He considers His image-bearers as having the utmost worth. If you draw issue with that, look not to me but to God’s word. However, to pray for the justice and the salvation of the wrongdoer is not to engage in contradiction, but rather a reflection of the Lord’s very own heart. In this way we follow not the right path or the left, but the narrow way laid out by our Savior.

What our world needs most is the very thing it’s always needed most. Not the fumbling moral machinations of either right or left, or anything in between, but rather the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, which “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16). At the very end of this article I have included a link to a short Gospel tract which I wrote several months ago. If you feel so inclined, please feel welcome to share it, whether in print or digitally, with those whom the Lord has put on your heart. Or, as I often do, quite simply print off several copies and leave one or two wherever you might find yourself throughout the day—for as you know, the Lord often works in small and unexpected ways. Do not be overcome by evil, brothers and sisters, but rather overcome the very real evil in this world with good and share the good news of salvation through Christ alone to our fallen world.

And for those of us who have fled to Christ for refuge from the wages of sin—that is, death—rest in the truth that we do “not grieve as others do who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). And yet we still have freedom to grieve, the command to grieve; for death is no small foe and it inflicts no small wounds. In Christ the sting of death has been removed, and yet was it not the Lord Himself who wept at the grave of His friend Lazarus? As Christians, we should both weep and grieve; not as those without hope, but as those with hope who rightly recognize the deep brokenness and disorder that sin and death inflict upon the world. As God’s people, we have the language to express our grief and hatred over wickedness because of the truth that is in Christ Jesus. So, then, let us grieve for Charlie as those who hope in Christ and share that hope with a world that needs Him more now than ever before. After all, that’s what Charlie would have done. And of course, continue in prayer to our sovereign Lord and God on behalf of Charlie’s dear wife, young children, and the many loved ones who mourn his passing.

“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

—1 Corinthians 15:55-57

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To view, read, and share the Gospel tract I mentioned, click here.

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