A God Ready to Pardon

“…but thou art a God ready to pardon…”
Nehemiah 9.17

In the mid 1800’s, the Supreme Court had this to say about pardon:

"A pardon reaches both the punishment prescribed for the offence and the guilt of the offender; and when the pardon is full, it releases the punishment and blots out of existence the guilt, so that in the eye of the law, the offender is as innocent as if he had never committed the offence. . . . [It] removes the penalties and disabilities, and restores him to all his civil rights; it makes him, as it were, a new man, and gives him a new credit and capacity (ed. freedom)."

Such is the pardon that God gives to sinners through Jesus Christ. It is full and free. The pardoned sinner, though a criminal so far as the facts of history are concerned, is an innocent man so far as the judgments of the law are concerned. The Lord’s pardon removes not only the punishment, but also the guilt. He who is pardoned is, indeed, a new man, with no debt to his account and the freedom (called “capacity” above) to serve God acceptably (Hebrews 12.28). Such pardons are hard to come by in this world, for men are not prone to show such mercy. But the Lord is a God “ready to pardon,” the chiefs of sinners and is not stingy with the blessing but “abundantly pardons,” those that turn to Him for mercy. Blessed be His Name.