This week President Trump issued a presidential sentence commutation to his adviser, Roger Stone. As with any and every action this president has taken, the decision has been met with much criticism of abuse of power and favoritism to his cronies.
Other presidents have also exercised controversial pardons and commutations: Obama of Chelsea Manning, Bush of Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and of Scooter Libby, Clinton of his brother Roger and of Susan McDougal—and so the list goes on.
God Himself has a record is full of controversial pardons. Interestingly, the first person ever to ask God’s forgiveness in the Bible was Pharaoh, a pagan (Ex. 10.17). But God has a string of controversy of pardons as long as history itself. Jacob was a scoundrel, and at least some of his sons, if not most, were bad eggs. God healed Naaman the Syrian, pardoned the Ninevites, and even showed some clemency to Nebuchadnezzar.
In Matt. 20.1-16 (the parable of the workers in the vineyard), God as the landowner is “guilty” of giving people far more than they are due.
In Romans 5:8 we are told that God’s outrageous grace and forgiveness extends to all of us.
God is the master of controversial pardons, for which you and I or any one of us can be eternally grateful.