Some people just have a knack for “stirring the pot.” Whatever you thought about President Biden issuing a presidential pardon to his son Hunter, you have to grant that had it been a low day for news, the president certainly exhibited a flair for providing a bequest that created a tempest. But what is the essential distinction between President Biden providing a pardon to Hunter and Jesus the Christ providing pardon to confessing humanity? The president invoked a law of the United States of America granting him the right to extend pardons. Jesus looked to a desperate felon who was being crucified with Him and pronounced the ultimate pardon, saying, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” Both proceeded in accordance with the authority vested in them. Why do many wrestle with the validity of the pardon of one father over the other?
The difference between the two is as vast as the light years from the earth to Alpha Centauri. The one word establishing that chasm is “justice.” However much the president desires, he can pardon Hunter, but in so doing he has perverted justice rather than achieving justice.
The pardon of Jesus was not based on the reformation of its recipients. Neither was its basis limited to the love of the Lord Jesus, though that universal love was what motivated Jesus to offer such a pardon. The Bible is without duplicity when it declares, “Whoever eats of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in the day that he eats thereof he will surely die” (Genesis 2:17). Or again, “The soul that sins shall surely die” (Ezekiel 18:20). Again, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift [pardon] of God is eternal life” (Romans 6:23). The inescapable inevitability of one sin is the sentence of death! So serious is the infringement on God's word and moral authority in His creation that the penalty for unleashing the perils of disobedience was death—both physical (separation of the spirit from the body) and spiritual (separation of the spirit from God).
Consequently, Jesus provided pardon for sinners who sought His mercy. But in His proviso of pardon, He also satisfied the just demand of God: “The soul that sins must die.” He paid the full price exacted because of iniquity by dying on a Roman cross. Atonement is made through the shedding of blood. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls” (Leviticus 17:11). Therefore, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:14).
Jesus pardons us, having met and satisfied the just judgement of a Holy God for us. Heaven is not cheapened; God the Father is not mocked. Justice is fully achieved. Crime does not go unpunished. And yet, the greatest of all miracles takes place as sinners are pardoned. Left to the interpretation of historians is the presidential pardon given by President Biden to his son. But the pardon of Jesus is forever a just pardon issued not of necessity, but of grace. All other pardons are secondary to that clemency of God.
Great explanation of the differences. Thank You Dr. Patterson