The house seems large today. Just a few years after we got married Aileen and I bought the only house we could afford at the time—a little townhouse in an older neighborhood. We never left, never moved on, never traded up. It was big enough for our needs and we happily raised our children here. Though it often seemed too small, today it seems a bit too large. What use do we have for all these rooms? What good do they do just the two of us? It seems large today—large, empty, and kind of sad.

The dinner table seems large this evening. Some of our best family memories were made right here. We gathered around this table each evening to eat, to talk, to laugh, to read the Bible, to pray. In so many ways our family life revolved around this table. Five of us would sit here, often six if one of the children from the neighborhood was joining us. It was always just a bit tight as we sat elbow-to-elbow, our feet bumping and fighting for space underneath. But it seems large this evening with just two of us sitting here, just two of us sitting down at one end. It seems large, empty, and kind of sad.
The living room seems large tonight. You might think that would be impossible when our living room is so very small. We never could fit enough chairs in here to seat all of us at once. Someone would always have to sit on a lap or lie on the floor, or three would need to squeeze onto a mere loveseat. We read so many books here, books that transported us to Middle Earth or Narnia, to the Canadian east coast or the American prairies. So many books, so many stories, so many memories in so small a place. But this living room feels too large tonight—large, empty, and kind of sad.
It all seems large tonight—large, empty, and kind of sad. But my heart feels full tonight—full, pleased, and well satisfied, for each of our children is just where the Lord means for them to be. One is at college, the next step in her growth, the next stage of developing into who God has made her. One is at her home with her husband, happily settled into her new place, her new family, her new life. One is in heaven, in the safest and best of all places, the place we all most truly wish to be. And this little house was only ever meant to be temporary for our children, only ever meant to be the place in which we would prepare them, the place from which we would launch them into the world beyond, and the world beyond that.
I’ll go upstairs now and sit beside Aileen on that little loveseat. I’ll look at the empty table, gaze at the empty chairs, listen to the silence of an empty house and praise God for all the memories, all the blessings, all the sweet pleasures we experienced in this little house that, today at least, seems so large.

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Logos users, the NICOT and NICNT series of commentaries are on sale. These volumes are the backbone of a good commentary collection. Be sure to also grab a free commentary.

My book Pilgrim Prayers is on sale at 10ofThose with coupon code timpodcast. (Also, I was featured on their podcast which you can listen to via any of the apps.)

Westminster Books has a great deal on a new book about the future of Reformed apologetics.

Today’s Kindle deals include several helpful books about children, worship, and more.

J.A. Medders: “A pastor asked me what I would say to a 25-year-old devouring John Mark Comer’s books. And he also wanted to know my general take on JMC.” He offers some good thoughts.

Nadya Williams writes about something we both fear and resent: inconvenience. “We are desperately afraid of inconveniencing others—and at the same time, we are no less desperately annoyed when others inconvenience us. The two are connected. But you know who will rarely inconvenience you? Inanimate objects that operate the way they ought.”

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“While a biblical worldview may be accused of reinforcing gender stereotypes and putting women into a straightjacket of patriarchal oppression, when applied rightly, it actually provides beautiful freedom in gender expression (how you express your maleness or femaleness) while leaving no ambiguity regarding gender identity (whether a person is male or female).”

Brad Littlejohn writes about AI and his concern that “the risk of AI isn’t the extinction of humanity, it’s the abolition of man.”

Stephen writes about the Lord’s Supper and the elements we use to celebrate it. Specifically, he writes about gluten-free bread and non-alcoholic wine.

Here is one pastor’s take on why he thinks it might be wise to bring a printed Bible to church instead of relying on a smartphone.

Parenting teens has been a pleasure and a privilege. It has been an honor and blessing. So for those who have been warned only of the trials to come, let me recount some of the joys.

God’s grace is more clearly seen and more deeply savored in our weaknesses than in our strengths.
—Jon Bloom

Most of us probably assume that the criminal justice system in our country is generally sound. We may believe that it needs some tweaks here and there. We may understand that because it exists in a fallen world it will in some ways reflect the sins and weaknesses of the people who control and oversee it. But rarely do we pause to ask questions like this: If we had to design a criminal justice system from scratch and do so in a way that is consistent with Scripture, what might it look like? What principles would we embed within it? And how closely would it resemble the system we currently have?

Matthew Martens has thought deeply about these issues. He thought about them as a lawyer who graduated at the top of his class at the University of North Carolina School of Law, as a law clerk for a federal court of appeals judge, and then for Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist at the Supreme Court. Over the past 20 years, he thought about them while serving first as a federal prosecutor and then as a defense attorney. And then he thought about them as a seminary student who graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary with a master’s degree in biblical studies. He is nothing if not well-qualified. His reflections and analysis of criminal justice in general, and the American criminal justice system in particular, have now been published in Reforming Criminal Justice: A Christian Proposal, a book that is fascinating, concerning, and challenging all at once.
Martens explains that the book had its genesis in a conversation with one of the pastors at his church. This dinner took place shortly after the events in Ferguson, Missouri that followed news of the death of Michael Brown. Knowing that Martens was familiar with America’s criminal justice system, this pastor encouraged him to write a book on the subject. He considered it but, being busy with other matters, set it aside. Several years later, following the death of George Floyd and all the unrest that followed, another pastor encouraged him to write the same book. And this time he agreed.
He begins it this way: “You have heard it said that justice delayed is justice denied. But I tell you that justice denied is love denied. And love denied to either the crime victim or the criminally accused is justice denied. This, I hope to persuade you, is not merely my view but also Christ’s.” He means to show that the Bible speaks to the issue of criminal justice and that “the root of the biblical concept of justice is love.” For justice to be done, love must be extended to both the victim of a crime and to the one who has been accused of it. A system will be just to the degree that it extends love in this way.
Martens believes there are two roadblocks that have prevented Christians from having helpful conversations about criminal justice. The first is that some of the loudest voices on the issue are not well-informed and do not have an accurate knowledge of the way the criminal justice system actually operates. The second is that much of the discussion “occurs without reference to a comprehensive Christian ethic of criminal justice. Rather, much of the current Christian engagement on this issue sounds more like political talking points than a biblical framework.” He means to address both of these and lead Christians into more accurate, profitable, and biblical discussions.
Key to his explanation of criminal justice is that “the criminal justice system is, by definition, state-sponsored violence. Every criminal law, even a just one, is an authorization for the state to use physical force against an image bearer if he or she fails to comply with the law’s mandate.” The Bible does not prohibit such violence but, rather, explicitly sanctions it. An arrest, a jail sentence, or a death penalty are all acts of violence in which the system uses force against a person who has been made in the image of God. God permits this in order to maintain law and order in his world. However, it is critical that such violence be committed justly, which is to say, that it be done in love for both the victim and the accused. Hence, this is a book about love and how a criminal justice system—and especially America’s criminal justice system—can display love, for a truly just system is a system that will be marked by God’s love for accused and victim alike.
The book is comprised of two parts. In the first part, Martens proposes a Christian ethic of criminal justice that can then be used to analyze America’s system or that of any other nation. Here he draws out biblical principles that can apply to any nation at any time in history. He considers how criminal justice is a form of social justice. (For those who recoil at the use of the words social justice, he uses the term in the valid or traditional sense of “the just ordering of society” rather than the modern sense that is ideological and connected to critical theory.) If criminal justice is truly a matter of the just ordering of society, Christians ought to care about it and be as active in countering injustice in this area as in other areas like abortion or sex slavery. After all, “justified people should advocate for more just laws.” What might just laws, and therefore a just criminal justice system, promote and value? His answer is accuracy, due process, accountability, impartiality, and proportionality. Each of these terms receives a chapter-length treatment to show how they are consistent with the character of God and his revelation of himself in the Bible.
In the second section, Martens takes a look at the way America’s criminal justice system has been structured and the way that it functions. He especially considers aspects of it that so many people take for granted. In every case, he considers whether it truly reflects God’s love and justice. He means to ensure that his readers understand how the system actually works and especially how it handles the prosecution of criminal offenses, beginning with indictment and continuing all the way through sentencing. It’s important to understand that his focus is not on policing, for that would be a very different book that would fall outside of his expertise. Rather, his focus is on what happens after the police have apprehended a suspect and turned him or her over to the criminal justice system.
So in this section of the book he considers what the system counts as a crime, then looks at plea bargaining, jury selection, judges, assistance of counsel, exculpatory evidence, witnesses, sentencing, and the death penalty. In every case, he considers how this aspect of the system measures up in accuracy, due process, accountability, impartiality, and proportionality. You may not be shocked to learn that he believes the system often falls far short, and that elements of injustice are deeply embedded and widely accepted within America’s criminal justice system. He makes this case slowly and deliberately but, to my mind, convincingly.
A final chapter asks what Christian individuals can do and how they can act in order to advocate for greater justice and for justice that flows from love for both those who have been victimized and those who have been accused.
I have commented in the past that there is a lot of sameness in Christian publishing. It’s for that reason that I am so often intrigued when I find a book that is completely different from any I have read before. This one most certainly qualifies. In Reforming Criminal Justice, Matthew Martens addresses a subject that concerns few of us but ought to concern all of us. He explains what the Bible says about criminal justice, calls us to analyze the systems our nations have, and encourages us to advocate for ones that are better, which is to say, ones that reflect God’s love and God’s justice. Whoever you are and wherever you live (and, it should be noted, I live in a country other than the one that forms the setting for this book), I expect you will benefit from reading it and that you will be challenged by it.
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