By Pastor Funsho Fabiyi.
The historical English tradition of royal prerogative of mercy which was introduced into the penal system around 1617 permitted a British monarch to grant royal pardons to persons sentenced to death. Similar to this is the executive clemency in the United States of America. It confers power on the President in federal convictions and Governor in state cases to totally pardon a person on death row or commute convictions to a lesser punishment.
By the same token, every human on the earth is on eternal death row as a consequence of the sin that they inherited at birth and the actual sins that individuals commit. Romans 6:23 says that “the wages of sin is death.”[1]The Holy Bible (KJV) But then, the good news is that God has exercised His divine prerogative of mercy when He sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty of your sins by dying in your place on the cross. The second part of Romans 6:23 reads: “But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” You can appropriate God’s mercy into your life by praying a simple but sincere prayer asking to be pardoned of every single sin that you have ever committed. Ask God to give you the power not to go into those sins again. This gift of God is available for you today.
However, an unusual point of law was raised in Philadelphia in 1830 after George Wilson had turned down the presidential pardon offered to him by President Andrew Jackson.[2]G Franklin Allee: Evangelistic Illustrations for Pulpit and Platform p273 George Wilson and James Porter had been found guilty of six charges, including robbing the United States mail carrier in 1829. James Porter was executed on schedule on 2nd July 1830, but influential friends kept the pressure on the president for George and he was granted a reprieve. Incredibly, he rejected it and the case was referred to the Supreme Court. After thorough consideration, the court arrived at a conclusion which in the words of Chief Justice John Marshall reads as follows: “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.”[3]https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-2/section-2/clause-1/the-legal-nature-of-a-pardon
God of heaven has granted you pardon, which has been fully paid by the substitutionary death of His Son Jesus Christ. You can exercise your free will today by thankfully accepting God’s mercy, turning away from all the bad things that you have done and believing on the Lord and an indescribable peace from heaven will descend upon your soul. Please do it now.