DAILY DEVOTIONAL – May 26, 2020
“Oh! Pardon Me.“
Prayer: Almighty God, Your gift of salvation has been given to all mankind. The free gift comes to us only because Your Son Jesus was judged and condemned in our place. Soften all of our hearts in faith toward You O Lord, so that each day we would receive the fullness of joy You have promised and that You have given in Jesus. Amen.
John 12:44-50
44 And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. 45 And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. 47 If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. 48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. 49 For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. 50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”
Devotional – “Oh! Pardon Me!”
Have you ever rejected a gift? I think it is safe to assume that even when you are given a gift you may not be that fond of, we all probably still smile courteously, say thank you and at the very least appreciate the thought behind a gift even if the gift itself is less than desirable. Why do we do this? Because we understand it is common courtesy and the morally right thing to do. It is naturally understood and needs no explanation, that if someone gives you a gift, you should receive it gratefully. To do anything else would be offensive and rude.
This commonly understood fact is what makes the story of Georg Wilson all the more baffling.
George Wilson was a career criminal who, in the 1830s, was indicted on six counts of obstructing and robbing the U.S. mail, including threatening a carrier with bodily harm and violent assault. At the time, being convicted of a violent assault carried with it a penalty of death. Rising public petition against the death penalty prompted then president, Andrew Jackson, to issue a pardon for the convicted George Wilson.
To everyone’s shock, when he was advised of the President’s decision, George Wilson declined the pardon. He rejected the gift. As is recorded in the official court documents regarding Wilson’s case, “On this 21 October, 1830, the defendant, George Wilson, being in person before the court, was asked by the court … whether he wished in any manner to avail himself of the pardon referred to, and the said defendant answered in person that … he did not wish in any manner to avail himself, in order to avoid sentence in this particular case.”
The district court was not sure how to handle the complexities of the case, and eventually the matter was referred to the U.S. Supreme Court which later ruled that, “A pardon is an act of grace, proceeding from the power entrusted with the execution of the laws, which exempts the individual on whom it is bestowed from the punishment the law inflicts for a crime he has committed. … A pardon is a deed to the validity of which delivery is essential, and delivery is not complete without acceptance. It may then be rejected by the person to whom it is tendered, and if it be rejected, we have discovered no power in a court to force it on him. It may be supposed that no being condemned to death would reject a pardon, but the rule must be the same in capital cases and in misdemeanors.”
Further, Chief Justice John Marshall purportedly pronounced that the value of a pardon “must be determined by the receiver. It has no value apart from that which the receiver gives it, therefore, George Wilson must die.”
This true story of George Wilson could certainly be described as “unbelievable.” Who in their right mind would reject an opportunity to be pardoned?! I think all of us would assume, just as the Supreme Court did that, “no person condemned to death would reject a pardon.” Yet, a terrifying amount of people reject such a pardon every day.
We don’t need a judge and jury to know that all of us, every man and every woman, is guilty of so many sins. All of us have been sentenced to death because of our own sin and by our own sin. Our sin separated us from the One holy and perfectly righteous God and Judge of all. God did not sentence us to death as a punishment, though He certainly had every right to. God warned Adam and Eve and continues to warn you and I today through His Scriptures that we die because we have sinned, and if we reject that gift of full pardon that God has so graciously given us by sending His Son Jesus to die in our place, then we condemn ourselves. Hell is nothing other than the complete absence of God’s presence.
Much like George Wilson, we have all been given a pardon in the blood of Christ. As 1 John 2:2 says, “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” God has given each of us forgiveness as a free gift in the death and resurrection of Christ, and He has delivered the news of that full pardon to us in His Word. The assurance and joy of salvation comes from receiving the gift that has already been given to us through faith in Christ. To reject that gift is to reject life, to offend and grieve God Himself and ensure an eternal death sentence. As Jesus says in our text for today, “If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. 48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.”
God sends no one to hell. In Christ, God has offered a pardon to everyone of us. As Isaiah 53 tells us, Christ was rejected by God on the cross so that through faith in Him we would not be rejected, but pardoned by God. Nevertheless, as Chief John Marshall so aptly said of George Wilson, a pardon “has no value apart from that which the receiver gives it.” I pray each and every one of you would receive the gift God has given to you and that is yours; the gift of forgiveness and eternal salvation in by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
Thanks for spending time with me today in God’s Word, and remember that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
