Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Politics and Religion
Presidential Pardons vs. God’s Pardons

Presidential Pardons vs. God’s Pardons

Last updated on: December 4, 2024 at 6:00 am by Gene Veith

0 Comments

Presidential Pardons vs. God’s Pardons 2024-12-03T11:10:48-05:00 Gene Veith

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Before leaving office, still-President Biden pardoned his son Hunter. Not just for the tax and gun crimes he was recently convicted for but for any “offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014, through December 1, 2024.”

Such a broad and all-inclusive presidential pardon is unprecedented. So observes Aaron Blake in his Washington Post article The Extraordinary Breadth of Hunter Biden’s Pardon:

President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, on Sunday is exceptional not just because of the pardon’s recipient — the closest family member to receive a pardon in history — but also for its sheer breadth, according to experts on presidential pardons.

Biden didn’t just pardon his son for his convictions on tax and gun charges, but for any “offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014, through December 1, 2024.”

That’s a nearly 11-year period during which any federal crime Hunter Biden might have committed — and there are none we are aware of beyond what has already been adjudicated — can’t be prosecuted. It notably covers when he was appointed to the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma in 2014 all the way through Sunday, well after the crimes for which he was prosecuted.

Hunter Biden hasn’t been charged for his activities with regard to Burisma or anything beyond his convictions, and nothing in the public record suggests criminal charges could be around the bend. Congressional Republicans have probed the Burisma matter and Hunter Biden extensively and could seemingly have uncovered chargeable crimes if they existed, but haven’t done so.

Even still, the scope of the pardon is remarkable. Experts say there is little to no precedent for a pardon covering such a wide range of activity over such a long period, with the closest being Gerald Ford’s 1974 pardon of Richard M. Nixon after Nixon resigned post-Watergate.

The president is certainly within his power to issue pardons. It’s clearly stated in the Constitution. The section that defines the powers of the Chief Executive, Article II, Section 2, says this:

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

I would think this would clear the way for once-and-future President Trump to pardon the January 6 rioters, along with anyone caught up in all the charges against him, which are sure to be dismissed now. In pardoning Hunter, Biden said that the charges against him were politically-motivated, thus admitting what Trump has been saying all along, that our system of justice has been co-opted to wreak political retribution. This will tee up the reform of the Justice Department that Trump has been threatening. Now it won’t have to just be about him, but about the overall problem of “lawfare,” which could conceivably be waged against any citizen. (As in the case of the Colorado baker who keeps getting charged, even after judges keep throwing out the case, as a punishment for his religious convictions against same-sex marriage.)

I am intrigued by another dimension of these pardons. They are something of a picture of the pardon the Chief Executive of the Universe gives for us. The pardon we receive is far broader and more inclusive than what Biden issued for his son. We are guilty of a whole life full of sin. We stand convicted under God’s Law. And yet, God has issued us a complete, comprehensive pardon.

But there is much more than that. Our sins have been atoned for. That is the difference with a presidential pardon. The debt that we owe has been paid. The punishment that justice demands has been carried out.

Biden pardoned his son, something that we parents might do for our own children if we had the power to do so. But God did not pardon His Son. Rather, God laid on Him our crimes.

It has become theologically fashionable these days–even among some Catholics; even among some Evangelicals–to downplay or even deny the doctrine of the Atonement. If God wants to forgive sins, He can just forgive them. Punishing His Son for what we have done is unjust, and we know God is always just. Theological Liberals are calling the Atonement “cosmic child abuse.” Others aren’t so blasphemous, but they reduce Christ’s crucifixion to a tragedy, a sign of how sinful we are, or, more positively, a sign of how much Jesus loves us.

But the Atonement must be connected to the other Christians doctrines; in particular, the Incarnation, the Deity of Christ, and the Trinity. Also, God’s omnipotence.

What if, instead of writing out a pardon that frees Hunter from the consequences of his crimes, President Biden said, “Look, my son Hunter is guilty. So I will go to jail in his place.”

Human analogies to God always fail, but that is more what God has done. The crucifixion of Jesus is the crucifixion of God the Son. The Atonement is the action of the Triune God. The Son’s sacrifice of Himself to the Father on our behalf is a self-sacrifice on the part of the Holy Trinity.

And there is an ontological dimension to the Atonement. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). It wasn’t just that Jesus bore our sins in some symbolic way. Rather, the Father made the Son to be sin.

St. Peter also emphasizes the physical reality of Christ’s sin-bearing: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24).

Not only that, the efficacy of Christ’s atonement for our sins is also an ontological reality. Christ’s sacrifice is efficacious for us because we are united with Him. Thus, we have died with him on His Cross and been raised from the dead with Him to a new life.

We are united with Christ by His Word and Sacraments, which we receive by faith. “I have been crucified with Christ,” says St. Paul. This is not a figure of speech. He really has been. He can hardly be clearer: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

Note the special role of baptism in connecting us to the death and resurrection of Christ:

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:3-11)

This is not figurative language. These are mighty realities.

But how could this be? How can our sins be moved around and transferred to someone else? How can we be united with someone who lived 2000 years ago? How can someone’s death, even if He is the Son of God, bring about pardon for our sins?

We might as well ask how God created the universe or how God could become a man. The Atonement is a mind-blowing miracle of that magnitude.

Photo: Hunter Biden by Center for Strategic & International Studies, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Hunter Biden's pardon

President Joe Biden

union with Christ

Previous Post

December 3, 2024

He Came, He Comes, He Will Come

Next Post

December 5, 2024 Eisenhower on the Vocation of Staffer

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"I am told one only gets the $90 if one is on a Supplemental Medicare ..."

reg

On Trump’s Political Ads That You ..."

"I too don't think the $5,000 giveaway will happen, but only because the Trumpublicans won't ..."

Tom Hering

On Trump’s Political Ads That You ..."

"Well, large cash give-aways are generally bad policy, but really bad in any of the ..."

1another

On Trump’s Political Ads That You ..."

"Well, we think it pretty much fits my thesis, except I'm not sure whether all ..."

kerner

On Trump’s Political Ads That You ..."

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category America Apologetics Art baseball Bible Blog Christ Church crime Culture Economics Education Ethics Family Food Football Government History Holidays Holy Week Humor International Islam Language Law Life Issues Literature Media Medicine Movies Music Nature News Personal Philosophy Politics psychology Reformation Religions Sacraments Science sex Social Science Sports technology television terrorism Theology Uncategorized Vocation war

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

I am a donkey that spoke to rebuke my master, a prophet. What am I?

Select your answer to see how you score.

A talking animal Balaam's donkey A prophet's beast A miracle donkey

Books by This Author Books by Gene Veith

See All Titles »