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What is Grace? Webster’s dictionary gives a lot of definitions of grace, including "mercy and clemency", and "a favor rendered by one who need not do so". Also in the definditions under grace was a section titled
Theology: where grace is described as: "divine love and protection bestowed freely upon mankind". Also, "the state of being protected or sanctified by the favor of God. An excellence or power granted by God", and finally, "an unmerited gift from God".
Let me repeat that last one -- "an unmerited gift from God".
I would like to tell you a story, a true story, that happened some 170 years ago . The year was 1830, and a man by the name of George Wilson had just heard a judge pronounce the fateful words, "George Wilson, I sentence you to be hanged by the neck, until dead." As that judge’s gavel came crashing down, I’m sure Wilson must have been thinking about the government official he killed, while robbing the U.S. Mail.
Years ago, the judicial process was much different than it is today. Now, it is commonplace to hear about people who have spent 10, 12, even years on death row, waiting for their appeals to be exhausted before justice is finally carried out. Back then, the sentence was usually carried out within weeks, or months at the most.
But an unusual thing happened on the way to the gallows. For some unknown
reason, Andrew Jackson, then President of the United States, granted a
full presidential pardon to George Wilson. Jackson, using the powers granted
him by the U.S. Constitution extended mercy and clemency
in other words "grace" -- to a condemned murderer.
The pardon was sent through all the proper channels, until the warden of the prison, where Wilson was awaiting execution, received it. That warden read over the pardon, then walked to Wilson’s cell. Opening the door, the warden told a stunned Wilson that he was free to leave.
I can almost hear Wilson asking "Say What?" The warden explained that
the President had granted a pardon, and Wilson could leave. But what happened
next was even more unusual. You see,
Wilson refused to leave the prison cell, refused the pardon, refused
to accept the free gift of grace he had been granted by the President.
Well, the warden now had a problem. He had a court order, telling him to hang George Wilson, and he had a Presidential Pardon, telling him to free George Wilson. But Wilson refused to cooperate -- refused to leave.
Being a good civil servant, the warden did the only thing he could. He turned the matter over to his superiors. The strange case of George Wilson was to become one of the great debates in the history of the American judicial process, eventually winding up before the United States Supreme Court.
Chief Justice Marshall wrote the majority opinion, and it is almost perfect in its simplicity. Marshall wrote, "A pardon is a slip of paper, the value of which is determined by the acceptance of the person to be pardoned. If it is refused, it is no pardon."
Stop and think about this case. George Wilson was under a death sentence. George Wilson did absolutely nothing to earn a pardon. Actually, there was absolutely nothing George Wilson could have ever done to earn a pardon. George Wilson never asked for a pardon. But the pardon was granted anyway. However, George Wilson refused to accept the pardon, and was, in fact, hanged by the neck, until dead.
When we, that’s you and I, were born -- we were under a death sentence.
I don’t care how "GOOD" we might think we are, we can never earn a
pardon from that death sentence. However, the good news is, our pardon
has already been granted - through Grace from God above. We don’t even
have to ask for it -- it’s ours simply by accepting it.
George Wilson could have chosen life, by saying "Yes!" Wilson could have been a free man by saying "Yes!" Wilson could have had a fresh start, his crimes been forgiven, by saying "Yes!"
Wilson turned down a pardon, written by the hand of a president, using
a pen dipped in ink.
We have a pardon, written by the hand of God, using a finger dipped
in the blood of his Son, Jesus Christ. Remember that definition I read
twice, "an unmerited gift from God".
John 3:16 reads, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life".
Let me repeat part of that: "That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish." What does that mean? It’s simple -- Quoting U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Marshall: "A pardon is a slip of paper, the value of which is determined by the acceptance of the person to be pardoned. If it is refused, it is no pardon."
John 3:16 either means everything, or it means nothing at all. John 3:10 either means life and life everlasting, through Jesus Christ, or it is just a slip of paper.
Because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, I know I have a pardon that is NOT just a slip of paper. I have a pardon, through Grace from God, that can never be taken away.