The Murder of Ashley Flynn and the Gospel of God

The murder of Ashley Flynn by her husband, Caleb Flynn, is a heartbreaking and shocking evil. I’ve followed this case pretty closely. Ashley was a wife, mother, daughter, sister, teacher, coach, friend, and follower of Jesus. Her family, including her two young daughters, now carry an indescribable grief. After Caleb was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole, his daughters wrote very raw and profound letters that were read publicly in court. They spoke of the necessity of earthly justice and their desire for their father to repent and find forgiveness from Jesus. They profoundly upheld the divine attributes of justice and mercy. 

We should remember two truths that Scripture never separates: God is perfectly just and shockingly merciful.

First, God is just. 

The Bible never minimizes evil in the name of forgiveness. God hates sin and murder because God is holy. He cares deeply about justice because human beings bear His image. The Bible says that “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne” (Psalm 89:14).

It is right to grieve Ashley's death (and others like it) and to hate murder. We should love what God loves and hate what God hates. It is right to call murder (of any kind) a great evil. It is right to desire that wrongdoing be exposed and that earthly authorities punish crimes like these. Romans 13 teaches that governing authorities are appointed by God as His servants to punish those who do evil and praise those who do good. They do not bear the sword in vain (Romans 13:1-7). 

Ashley’s daughters demonstrated something important here: forgiveness does not mean minimizing evil, and mercy does not mean abandoning justice (proportional to the crime). Ashley's girls expressed a spirit of mercy (regarding his eternal destiny) while also supporting the maximum sentence for Caleb on earth. The daughters acknowledged that his actions have consequences and that their father needed to honestly face those consequences and own up to what he did. 

Christians should therefore never confuse eternal compassion with moral indifference. We can have compassion for a sinner while still upholding justice and compassion for the victim. 

Second, God is merciful. 

There is another truth we must hold just as tightly: no sinner is beyond the reach of God's mercy while he or she still lives. That includes you and me. 

This is where the daughter’s letters are extremely profound. They did not merely want their father punished. They urged him to tell the truth about his sin, repent before God, and turn to Jesus for mercy. One daughter expressed hope that he could still have eternal life with God in heaven because of Jesus. She told him that repentance would not erase his earthly punishment but it can lead to eternal life with God.

That is a profoundly Christian posture. Just and merciful. 

The gospel doesn’t say, “Your sin wasn't that bad. God is nice and will let you off the hook.”

The gospel says to all of us, “Your sin is worse than you know, and Christ's grace is greater than you can imagine or measure.” Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more (Romans 5:20). 

At the cross, we see God's justice and mercy meet. God does not overlook sin. He judges it. Yet, for those who trust in Christ, the judgment we deserve fell upon Christ on the cross. He became our sin-substitute. He literally took the eternal death penalty for you, for me, and for murderers like Caleb. You name the sin. Christ bore the punishment for it on the cross in full measure. He absorbed the full weight of God’s wrath for every kind of sin and every kind of sinner. 

This perfect sacrifice is why Paul can say that God is both “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:26). 

It’s true. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Not the just. Not the clean. Not the good. Not the well-behaved. Not the moral. He came for cosmic criminals like you and me. 

In light of this, we should avoid two opposite errors.

We should not become people who only want justice. If all we want is punishment for sinners, we have forgotten that we too are sinners who desperately need grace. Loving justice is godly, but loving only justice is not (see Exodus 34 where God describes his merciful and just character). If you only want justice, then you will only get justice too. 

We should not desire mercy in a way that minimizes or eliminates sin and the necessity of justice. Biblical forgiveness never requires us to call evil good or to oppose legitimate earthly consequences for sin. We should never minimize the heinous nature of our sin or the sins of others. Sin is sinful beyond measure. A small problem requires a small Savior. But sin is no small offense or problem. It’s massive. 

Instead, Christians should be people who love justice and mercy at the same time. 

We can say that Ashley deserved to live. What happened to her was beyond wicked. Justice matters. Righteousness matters. Caleb deserves severe consequences. The greatest compassion for Ashley and her family is extremely important. Consequences matter.

At the same time, we can say that Caleb (although he did the unspeakable) is still an image-bearer who will spend eternity in heaven or hell. Christ is still an all-sufficient Savior who made a sufficient sacrifice. We pray that he would confess his sin, genuinely repent, and find eternal mercy in Jesus.

That is not hypocrisy or evil. That is the gospel. God is just and the justifier of anyone who repents and believes in Christ. 

Maybe this is one of the most powerful lessons Ashley's daughters have given us. In the midst of unimaginable grief, they have held together two things that we want to separate: “You must face the consequences of your actions” and “I still want you to find eternal forgiveness in Christ.” 

The Bible commands us to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. Ashley’s daughters did that. We must do that. 

May God make us that kind of people, a people who hate evil without becoming hateful, who pursue earthly justice without abandoning eternal compassion, who forgive without minimizing sin, and who genuinely desire that all sinners of all kinds in all places would come to repentance and be saved. Have you repented? Have you come to Jesus for mercy? Do that right now. Don’t wait. If you have, remember all that he’s done for you. May the gospel stir you to love justice and mercy. 

“Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” Genesis 18:25

“God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 1 Timothy 2:4