The Lutheran Hour
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"You Are Pardoned"
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Text: Isaiah 55:7 "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him; And to our God, for He will abundantly pardon."
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PRAYER: Blessed Heavenly Father, we praise You, that in Your mercy, You do not treat us as we deserve because of our sin. With hymns of joy, we praise You, that You sent Your Son Jesus to die on the bloody cross, and to pay the price for our sins. O Lord, in Your grace, console all troubled hearts, stabilize the doubting, and work a rock-like faith in all who do not resist the sin-cleansing and salvation power of Your living Word. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
Last January when President Clinton was completing his two-term presidency, the media announced in his last days, even in his last hours, this president pardoned 176 individuals. The total number was 395 pardons.
Pardons, even last minute pardons, issued by U.S. presidents are nothing new. For example, records show the first President Bush pardoned 74 people; President Ford, 382 people; Reagan, 393; President Clinton, 395; Kennedy, 472; President Carter pardoned 534; Nixon, 863; Johnson, 960; President Truman, 1013; and President Eisenhower, 1,110. We could go on and on.
Most people are not against a president granting pardons. However, what upset so many thousands of people was the perception that Clinton pardoned some who had never served any time or paid any price for their crime. This was for many an outrage!
This is why those who study the Bible seriously also learn what God has done for them. They find this Good News of their own pardon absolutely incredible. You see “in Christ” God has pardoned you, even though you don’t deserve it. God’s pardon is not a political pardon. It’s a “spiritual pardon” as Isaiah describes when he writes: “Jesus bore our grief. He carried our sorrows. Jesus was pierced through for our transgressions.” Jesus was crushed for all of your sins. By His scourging, by His bleeding and suffering, you can now be totally forgiven and healed from all your sins.
“All of us,” Isaiah reminds us, “like sheep have gone astray.” We have sinned terribly against God. Each of us has turned his own way. Yet in His mercy, our Lord has caused all of our sins to fall upon Jesus!
Isaiah also explains when God the Father saw the suffering of His Son Jesus, all the blood which Jesus paid for your sins and failures, satisfied God’s demand of righteousness and holiness on your part. The bloody suffering, the innocent death, and the victorious resurrection of Jesus has gained an undeserved pardon! Oh, let people be critical of what God has done for you. Let people question what God has done, but no one can take away the pardon the Lord Jesus Christ has earned for you when He died.
No clearer explanation of God’s pardoning grace can be seen than that explained by the psalmist when he writes “God has not dealt with us according to our sins.”
So, instead of focusing on questionable political presidential pardons, fix your thoughts on the pardon and the hope God is now offering you in the sin-cleansing blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even in your darkest hour, in your most discouraging moments, the gracious and pardoning power of God will uplift you and give you a new start and a reason to live.
Nearly one year ago, our nation’s newspapers featured a stunning story on the tragic condition of the famous New York Yankees baseball hero, Darryl Strawberry. Let me read directly from a news clipping about this famous athlete: “New York Yankees slugger Darryl Strawberry, under double assault from fierce drug addiction and colon cancer stood in shackles before a judge and said, “For me, life hasn’t been worth living. That’s the honest truth,” he said, “I want to die.”
None of us needs drug addiction or cancer to be discouraged about life. Due to failures in a marriage, men often grieve privately, because they realize their shortcomings in family problems. Wives and mothers all over our land pour out their guilt-burdened hearts to close friends. Pastors of churches often feel guilty because they believe they have not been as successful as some of the front running clergy often featured in church magazines.
Oh, indeed, there are times in life when we need more than a $1.95 or a $2.50 greeting card. When your heart is heavy and your soul is burdened with feelings of failure or inadequacy, you need a special divine lift. You need the powerful and uplifting promises of your merciful heavenly Father.
You see, the best way to build a new future is first be assured by God Himself, that in His sight you can start over, based on His total forgiveness and His perfect pardon.
Last week, I retold the story from The Wall Street Journal about the lady who was searching and searching for meaning in life. This lady tried all kinds of religions. It was not until she experienced the forgiveness of God, and not until she returned to church, that her life settled down and again had peace and joy. This is the same forgiveness, friends, you need in order to get going in life once again. Through Isaiah the prophet, God is speaking to you when He says, “I, even I, am the One who wipes out your transgressions” (Isaiah 43:25). Isaiah says, “Forsake your past ways. Then the Lord has compassion on you, and He will abundantly pardon you” (Isaiah 55:7). This is not political talk. God’s pardons are not political absolutions. This is God talk; salvation talk; mercy talk! Rejoice in the joy of the prophet Micah when he says, “Who is a God like Thee, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant. God does not retain His anger forever because He delights in unchanging love.”
Last April, on its front page, the New York Times showed a picture of a family in Massachusetts worshipping in their home. The Times said, “This family represents a growing trend of people disenchanted with the current trend of the increasingly larger and larger mega churches which have adopted marketing campaigns, multimedia Bible studies and Sunday services choreographed as Broadway musicals.” One person interviewed said, “We have gotten so far away from what the church really ought to be.”
This same New York Times article then stated in every part of the country, more and more people are going from church to church trying to find one that meets their needs. Well, if the New York Times article is true, and I believe it is, we need to ask the question: What is the perfect church? What should it be like? If it is true, as the Bible teaches that “all of us have gone astray-each his own way,” and, if it’s true that, as 1 Kings says, “There is no man that does not sin” (1 Kings 8:46) and, if it is true that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” as it says in Romans 3:23; the most important thing to look for, as they try to find a church that meets their needs is find a church where the pastor, from the pulpit and in Bible class, reminds them in no uncertain terms that “by nature” they are sinners. Daily, they fall short of what God expects. And in this same ideal church, these people must hear regularly that in Jesus Christ, God the Father has arranged for a perfect pardon for each of them in the sin-cleansing blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul says it like this, “In Him, [in Jesus] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of God’s grace” (Ephesians 1:7).
So friends, instead of spending time arguing about whether or not politicians should pardon each other or whether politicians should pardon so-called criminals, we need to spend more time dwelling on and focusing on the Biblical teaching of when God pardons you. He is not just changing His mind regarding your guilt. God is not saying, “Oh, poor baby, I feel so sorry for you!” God does not make light of His salvation plan for you and what it cost His Son. No! God cannot overlook the horrible cost for your sins. The terrible price for your failures in life had to be paid. When Jesus Christ went willingly to die on the cross, His blood was the full and complete payment for all of your sins. The Apostle Paul says, “Through your sins you deserve death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
This pardon, my friends, is indeed Good News that has prompted thousands of poets to write some of the greatest lines in their effort to describe the love and mercy of God. This is the mercy God is now offering you and me, and to all sinners.
Read as hymn writer Edward Cooper, in 1805, spoke about the Good News of God’s pardon:
Father of heaven, whose love profound A ransom for our souls hath found. Before Thy throne we sinners bend, To us, Thy pardoning love extend.
Almighty Son, Incarnate Word, Our Prophet, Priest, Redeemer, Lord Before Thy Throne, we sinners bend, To us, Thy saving grace extend.
Eternal Spirit by whose breath The soul is raised from sin and death Before Thy Throne we sinners bend To us, Thy quickening power extend.
Thrice Holy! Father, Spirit, Son! Mysterious God-head, Three in One Before Thy throne we sinners bend Grace, pardon, [and] life, to us extend.
Dear heavenly Father, we pray that You have not treated us as we deserve. By Your Spirit, prompt us not to spend all our time talking about the inequity of the pardons given by politicians. Instead, O Lord, fix our eyes on the bloody cross so we can see each day that You have not treated us as we deserve. But rather, on the basis of the sin-atoning blood of Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, You have pardoned us. O Lord, for this we rejoice and for this, we thank and praise You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX for September 23, 2001 “You Are Pardoned” 69-02
ANNOUNCER: I’m Mark Eischer with Dr. Schulz of The Lutheran Hour. In today’s message, you talked about the uproar when President Clinton pardoned a number of people in those last hours just before he left the White House. Now, there are perhaps many things a President could do that wouldn’t create such a vigorous reaction. Why do you suppose this issue of last minute presidential pardons was so much like throwing fuel on a fire?
SCHULZ: Well, Mark, this is a very interesting question and I think we should admit it’s about more than just politics. It deals with a very deep down realization by many people who may not themselves hold real strong Christian values. They may even live a rather loose moral life. Nevertheless, many subconsciously feel that those who do wrong things should pay for what they’ve done.
ANNOUNCER: So, you’re saying these pardons weren’t so much about people being pardoned by the President, but rather the fact some appeared not to have served their time or paid for their crime in any way?
SCHULZ: Yes, I think we could say this is the case. This is also why the situation of presidential pardons or even pardons by governors of a state can be so clearly and, might I say, beautifully related to the Christian faith and especially God’s Gospel.
ANNOUNCER: Now, why do you say that?
SCHULZ: Well, when people talk about Christianity, they talk about a variety of things. Sometimes they talk about the life Christians should lead or the life Christians are leading. The talk may be about the impact Christianity has on a culture, and so on. These subjects, of course, are all interesting to discuss. However, if you honestly study the Bible, you find the central message of the Christian faith is God’s Gospel of pardon! This is more astounding than any political act could ever be.
ANNOUNCER: Well, for the benefit of our listeners, let’s tell them a little bit more about God’s pardoning power.
SCHULZ: To understand why and how God pardons, I think you have to go back a little. You see, because of what Jesus accomplished or earned on the cross — this suffering, death and His resurrection, permits God the Father to pardon you and me and all of our listeners.
ANNOUNCER: I don’t think I’ve ever heard it expressed that way. Why do you say Jesus permits God the Father to pardon sinners?
SCHULZ: Well, this all goes back to what we referred to in the message today. God said the soul that sins shall die. In order to save all of us from the death and penalty we deserve, God had no choice but to put His own Son to death. And, by doing this, God satisfied His own righteous demands. In His mercy, God provides in Jesus what He demands of us.
ANNOUNCER: Dr. Schulz, if our listeners are interested in learning more about this, where could they find it in the Bible?
SCHULZ: Of course, there are many expressions of God’s Gospel in the Bible. But one I think is very good is 2 Corinthians, chapter 5 where we read, “God was in Christ reconciling the whole world unto Himself.” Note closely that God’s act of reconciliation was not a change of mind. Rather, it was accomplished in the death and resurrection of Jesus.
ANNOUNCER: So, Dr. Schulz, what is the bottom line?
SCHULZ: Once again, when we think of some of the political pardons issued in the past, we might find the controversial pardons shocking. Maybe they are good for gossip, whatever. However, when we seriously study the central message of the Bible, we see the most unbelievable idea that God gives us an undeserved pardon in Jesus. Now, we may argue against it. But in fact, that’s what the Bible teaches. Therefore, if people go to hell, it’s not because God is not gracious. It is simply because those who have not been pardoned in Christ find the message of God’s love so foolish, they simply refuse to believe it. Therefore, I would urge all our listeners to focus repeatedly, even daily, on what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. Jesus paid the full price for all of our sins. This is the Good News of the Gospel of God in Jesus Christ.
ANNOUNCER: Thank you, Dr. Schulz. Look for next week’s Lutheran Hour message titled, “The Devil’s Latest Snare.”