Within the past week, both the outgoing and incoming Presidents of the United States have issued blanket pardons to particular individuals. We aren’t going to discuss on this site the wisdom, justice, or lack thereof in any of these decisions. But as Bible-believing Seventh-day Adventist Christians we are constrained to ask, Does God issue pardons of this nature within the setting of Biblical salvation?
Some Christians think so, even some Adventists. One of the most popular evangelical writers of our day, Philip Yancey, illustrates this problem as pointedly as anyone, writing favorably of “God’s unconditional grace and forgiveness” [1], “forgiveness in advance” [2], and of forgiveness “captured in a moment of time and applied for all eternity” [3]. Various modern Adventist authors have taken a similar position, writing at times of justification (forgiveness) as “a continuing umbrella” [4], “overarching forgiveness” [5], and the “umbrella of eternal grace” [6]. Perhaps most explicitly of all, another author writes:
It’s true that one important truth about justification is the forgiveness of our past sins, but justification involves far more than that. The righteousness of Christ includes the fact that He endured the just penalty of the law on behalf of our sins, past, present, and future [7].
The above statement is confusing to a degree; Jesus certainly endured the penalty for all human sin, but while His sacrifice is sufficient to provide forgiveness for all the sins that have ever been committed, only those who meet the conditions for forgiveness as listed below from Scripture are eligible to receive it. Jesus died for all, but all are neither forgiven nor saved.
Years ago another Adventist author, describing his belief concerning the relation of justification to sanctification, pictured himself on the book’s cover as wearing a black suit with a white umbrella over his head [8 ].
A blanket pardon indeed! But does the Bible teach this? Do the writings of the Spirit of Prophecy?
The Scope of Biblical Forgiveness
The God of Scripture never issues unconditional, blanket pardons. The following verses make this clear:
If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land (2 Chron. 7:14).
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile (Psalm 32:1-2).
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth, and forsaketh them shall have mercy (Prov. 28:13).
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon (Isa. 55:7).
Jesus also made it clear there were conditions for receiving His Father’s forgiveness:
For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses (Matt. 6:14-15).
And then we have the following statements from the apostle Paul himself:
For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified (Rom. 2:13).
But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid (Gal. 2:17).
Likewise, from the apostle John:
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
Ellen White, echoing the above Biblical teachings, declares that “God requires the entire surrender of the heart, before justification can take place, and in order for man to retain justification, there must be continual obedience, through active, living faith that works by love and purifies the soul” [9]. She goes on to say, in the same book: “It is by continual surrender of the will, by continual obedience, that the blessing of justification is retained” [10].
In another statement she writes, without qualification: “The unconditional pardon of sin never has been, and never will be” [11].
The Reason Why
God’s forgiveness can’t be unconditional for the simple reason that it is both declarative and transformative, meaning that it both pronounces us righteous and makes us that way. And God won’t take from us what we choose to keep. The Bible is clear that when God declares something to be so, it in fact becomes so. When God said, “Let there be light” at the creation, the Bible says, “And there was light” (Gen. 1:3). When Jesus said to the leper who came to Him for healing, “Be thou clean,” the Bible says, “And immediately his leprosy was cleansed” (Matt. 8:3). Thus we find the following description of justifying righteousness in Paul’s epistle to Titus, in which the apostle contrasts self-generated works (which save no one) with the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit (which in fact forms a part of Biblical salvation):
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.
Which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour,
That being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:5-7).
Commenting on Paul’s depiction of justification in the book of Romans, Ellen White observes:
In the creation, “He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.” He “calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Psalm 33:9; Rom. 4:17); for when He calls them, they are [12].
Other Ellen White statements likewise affirm the transformative aspect of Biblical justification:
To be pardoned in the way that Christ pardons, is not only to be forgiven, but to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. The Lord says, “A new heart will I give unto thee.” The image of Christ is to be stamped upon the very mind, heart, and soul [13].
Justification means pardon. It means that the heart, purged from dead works, is prepared to receive the blessing of sanctification [14].
The grace of Christ purifies while it pardons, and fits men for a holy heaven [15].
God’s forgiveness is not merely a judicial act by which He sets us free from condemnation. It is not only forgiveness for sin, but reclaiming from sin. It is the outflow of redeeming love that transforms the heart. David had the true conception of forgiveness when he prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10 [16].
Conclusion
The Constitution of the United States allows a President to issue pardons for any and all crimes committed at the federal level. Such clemency does not require penitence on the part of the one receiving it. But in God’s plan of salvation, repentance and a transformed heart are non-negotiable imperatives as prerequisites for the pardon Jesus offers. God has to be sure that those He receives into His kingdom won’t start another insurrection there. What America and the world witnessed at the U.S. Capitol four years ago has already been experienced in heaven. And neither God nor His universe wish for an encore. Hence the divine requirement of repentance, regeneration, and sanctification as essential for all who enter His kingdom.
REFERENCES
1. Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace? (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997), p. 15.
2. Ibid, p. 180.
3. Ibid, p. 69.
4. J. Robert Spangler, “Ask the Editor,” Ministry, October 1978, p. 11.
5. Colin Cook, “Which Door to Heaven?” These Times, September 1979, p. 14.
6. Keavin Hayden, Lifestyles of the Remnant (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Assn, 2001), p. 24; see also J. David Newman, “Can I Know I’m Saved?” Adventist Review, Aug. 24, 2006, p. 26.
7. Jack Sequeira, Beyond Belief: The promise, the power, and the reality of the everlasting gospel (Boise, ID: Pacific Press Publishing Assn, 1993), p. 103.
8. Steve Marshall, What’s the Difference? (Arroyo Grande, CA: Concerned Communications, 1979). On the cover the author is pictured wearing a black suit with a white umbrella over his head.
9. Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, vol. 1, p. 366.
10. Ibid, p. 397.
11. ----Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 522.
12. ----Education, p. 254.
13. ----Review and Herald, Aug. 19, 1890.
14. ----Ye Shall Receive Power, p. 96.
15. ----That I May Know Him, p. 336.
16. ----Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, p. 114 (italics original).
Pastor Kevin Paulson holds a Bachelor’s degree in theology from Pacific Union College, a Master of Arts in systematic theology from Loma Linda University, and a Master of Divinity from the SDA Theological Seminary at Andrews University. He served the Greater New York Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for ten years as a Bible instructor, evangelist, and local pastor. He writes regularly for Liberty magazine and does script writing for various evangelistic ministries within the denomination. He continues to hold evangelistic and revival meetings throughout the North American Division and beyond, and is a sought-after seminar speaker relative to current issues in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He presently resides in Berrien Springs, Michigan