[Note: Our guest contributing author, Gary Varvel, communicates complex ideas through witty and humorous editorial cartoons, providing a much deeper insight into morality and political events with the use of just one single panel. We often feature Gary’s art in our Lamplighter magazine, and in late February 2025 we featured him on an episode of our television program, Christ in Prophecy.]
There has been plenty of commentary about pardons lately. But I was reminded of a true story I heard years ago in church that is both puzzling and illustrative of a spiritual truth.
On December 6, 1829, George Wilson and James Porter, robbed a United States mail carrier in Pennsylvania.
Both men were arrested, tried, and convicted. On May 1, 1830, both men were found guilty of six indictments which included robbery of the mail “and putting the life of the driver in jeopardy.” On May 27th, both men were sentenced to death by hanging.
On July 2nd, Porter was hanged, but Wilson was not. He had some influential friends who pleaded for mercy to President Andrew Jackson, and so Wilson received a formal pardon commuting his sentence to 20 years in prison for his crimes.
According to court documents, George Wilson chose to “waive and decline any advantage or protection which might be supposed to arise from the pardon referred to.”
Unexplainably, Wilson rejected the pardon.
No one had ever rejected a Presidential pardon before, so the case went back to the courts and eventually to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Attorney-General made the argument: “The court cannot give the prisoner the benefit of the pardon, unless he claims the benefit of it.” The Court concurred. Chief Justice John Marshall wrote, “A pardon is an act of grace, proceeding from the power entrusted with the execution of the laws… (But) delivery is not completed without acceptance. It may then be rejected by the person to whom it is tendered, and… we have no power in a court to force it on him.”
In other words, a pardon is a piece of paper, the value of it is determined by the recipient. George Wilson was given a choice: life or death, and he chose death.
Like Wilson, every person is facing a death sentence because of sin. But John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Because Jesus took the form of sinful man in order to physically die in our place and three days later rose to life again, He offers a pardon from our death sentence and the gift of eternal life. But, this pardon is only appropriated to the person who repents of their sin and receives the pardon by faith.
Who in their right mind would reject eternal life? Sadly, most people will do what George Wilson did, and decline the offer.
Don’t be George Wilson. Pray and accept God’s pardon today!
