Vertical Forgiveness
- Scott Bullerwell
- Aug 1
- 16 min read
Updated: Aug 1
“I will not pardon him,” said Democratic President Joe Biden, in June of 2024, after a jury found his son Hunter Biden guilty on three federal gun charges. Sounds clear and concise. Right? No need to enquire as to what it means in ‘Canadian’ English ... versus ‘American’ English. Five words! Seventeen letters, 7 vowels!
The U.S. Department of Justice need not be called in to help us wrestle with the legalese.
No one from the U.S. Diplomatic Corp need clarify its ‘real’ meaning for jail birds or innocents ... dictators or capitalists ... Antifa goons ... or law-abiding citizens.
Blue state or Red, the language is no more complicated than my breakfast order at a restaurant: “Two-eggs, over easy, rye toast and sausage – please.”
I suppose we could call Alejandro Mayorkas and ask him what his boss meant. I mean, since the Director of Home Land Security (DHS) has firmly established “Look, the border is secure,” he likely has plenty of time on his hands now.
“I will not pardon him,” said the 46th President of the United States of America! Even Jean-Pierre, the President’s mouth-piece told WH reporters that Biden’s position has not changed. “We’ve been asked that question multiple times. Our answer stands, which is ‘no’.”
BUT – HE DID!
And ... the sheer breadth of Hunter’s pardon is mind-boggling! The 82 year old octogenarian not only pardoned his son for his established convictions on tax and gun charges – but “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.” Yup – Any offenses over almost 11 years cannot be prosecuted; from the time Hunter was appointed to the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma (2014), all the way through to the first Sunday in December. The only example that even comes close is the full and complete pardon by President Gerald Ford to the disgraced past president Richard Nixon.
The sheer breadth of Hunter Biden’s pardon by dad, is
something without any direct parallel in U.S. history.
Surely no one honestly thought dad, ‘the President’, was going to sit idly by watching his son marched off into a prison sunset when he had, in Monopoly language, a “Get Out of Jail Free” card he could use? “Yah, but, its his kid.” OK, I get it. The leader of the free world chose family over the nation he was elected to govern. I get it. He chose his ‘guilty’ son over a judicial system that he said – “I respect”. Apparently not true. No time served. Not a day ... an afternoon ... not even an hour – not even, say, between 5 and 6 o’clock, every February 29th. I wish I had Joe as my dad! I would sleep easier at night knowing every one of my childhood sins ... [and they were legion] are ‘covered’ by pops.
As I reflect on the absurdity of anyone ‘really’ believing the president intended to stand by his words, the entire drama hi-lights a few factual things:
Dad, the President lies! We either politely give him four Pinocchio’s ... or outright call him a liar [which Jesus would choose?]. Yah, I know this is perhaps not a nice thing for a Canadian ... much less a Christian to say, but in my world, if you steal you are a thief ... and if you lie, you are a liar. There is a moral and social responsibility to call negative behaviour what it actually is – and surely using honest language is a good beginning.
The US criminal system does have a double-standard – a standard not based on race or wealth, but political connections [Canada is most certainly no better – so stop the chest-beating!]. Remember the religious mantra against Trump - “No one is above the law”? Well, apparently that is only reserved for conservatives, for Biden clearly believes his son Hunter is. The words of the late country star Toby Keith come to mind: “Let’s cut a deal, let’s make a plan, Who’s your daddy ...”
Legacy media is dead ... Dead ... DEAD to ‘objective’ reporting. The same folks who tried to sell the American public fiction that Joe’s cognitive skills were fine ... that he was running circles around his staff ... and that he would restore the soul of the nation, were complicit in cultivating something that did not exist, as early as 2023-2024. Joe’s cognitive decline was unambiguously true ... he was non-functioning ... and they knew it!
The idea that journalists are the guardians
of democracy, is a narcissistic myth.
OK – so we are all broken: the President, who said “God save the Queen,” when ending a speech on gun violence, his WH inner-circle, the Easter Bunny helper on the WH lawn, the one in charge of the ‘auto-pen,’ the media who reported that the 46th was sharp and focused ... and even those who consume the news – whether ‘fake’ or otherwise. You and Me! We are all broken!
But all is not lost, for it is here in this human condition where the offer of the Gospel shines – because as Ephesians 3:20 reminds us, when His power is at work in us, He is able to do “Above and beyond what you can ask or think,” especially when it comes to our crimes past, present ... ‘crimes’ committed whether we were 22 ... 42 ... or 82, like the 46th.
The Faces of Forgiveness
“Salakh” (forgiveness; pardon). The concept of forgiveness runs throughout the Older Testament like a thread weaved into a blanket, and scholars agree that divine forgiveness is expressed primarily by the term “Salakh” (סלח; pardon; forgive), the term and its cognates appearing only 47 times; 20 times in the Pentateuch alone.
It is a uniquely special word in the Older Testament, because it is used solely ... singularly ... exclusively to describe God’s forgiveness; no one else. Said another way when the word salakh is used, God is always the subject and humans are always the object – receiving the action. So salakh is an exceptionally special term – off-limits to any use, except in describing God’s action.
God forgiving sin is so important, the Hebrew language uses a special word (Salakh), emphasizing
that it is a gracious act that originates from
both His initiative and unmerited favour.
This exclusive use of salakh is fundamentally important because we might wrongfully conclude that the way God forgives sin ... is the same as the way humans forgive each other! Nothing could be further from the truth! In Numbers 14:19-20 Moses famously petitions God:
“’In accordance with your great love, pardon (salakh; some translations. ‘forgive’) the sin of these people, just as you have forgiven them from the time they left Egypt until now." The Lord replied, “I have pardoned them, as you asked.’”
Demonstrating a lack of faith in God’s promises, the Israelites had rebelled at Kadesh Barena, and expressed their wish to return to Egypt and appoint a new leader. Moses, knowing God’s power and promise, appeals to Him, asking that He pardon His people because of their rebellion. As the writer to Hebrews reports “Moses was faithful in all his house” (3:5), and his other-centered intercession for the Israelites here in Numbers 14, not only proves Hebrews to be true ... but reminds us that the great patriarch is himself a dim shadow of Christ, for his intercession worked. God’s response was to ‘pardon’ Israel from the penalty of their rebellion.
“Nasa” (lift up; take away). In Genesis 50, following Jacob’s death, Joseph's brothers rightfully feared retribution for selling their brother into slavery. “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him” (v. 15), they asked?
We read ...
“So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father” (vv. 16-17).
Acknowledging that his brothers intended him harm, Joseph understands that God had turned their evil into a way of saving lives, and he therefore forgives them. The Hebrew verb used here is “Nasa” (נָשָׂא; “to lift up”, “take away”, “carry” [away]) and it is weaved throughout the Older Testament narrative, poetry, law and prophecy over 600 times, to describe something happening literally and/or figuratively. So, Joseph, in his forgiving, can be described as figuratively “lifting up” the sin of his brothers ... or lightening the load of transgressions that his brothers carry.
But ‘Nasa’ is not ‘Salakh,’ because only God can absolutely wipe the slate clean ... and that is why salakh is reserved exclusively to express His divine forgiveness and never used to describe human forgiveness between people. Secretly, I sometimes wonder if the phrase in Genesis 50:19 “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God?” – is intended to not only remind us that Joseph cannot punish (God is the ultimate judge) ... but that neither can Joseph forgive the way God forgives. While I do not know ... it would be worth investigating this idea in Genesis further sometime.
Yes, the Hebrew word “Nasa” means ‘lift’ ... but it is not directly related to that familiar acronym NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration).
Kinda cool though.1
Forgiveness as a Legal Pardon
Though forgiveness and pardon involve releasing someone from consequences, it would be unfortunate if we were to conclude that these words mean precisely the same thing. In a human context, forgiveness is subjective, is about reconciling, and renewing a relationship. Limited to a few, involves a change of heart (though not always – “I forgive you, but want nothing to do with you.”), transforms the forgiver from within and looks to redeem. It is a legal act within a specific jurisdiction. While some offenders might ‘do time’ and receive a pardon subsequently, in general, in a presidential pardon there is ‘no payment’.
When it comes to the effects of a Presidential pardon, American courts have adopted a variety of views: 2
(i) a pardon obliterates both the conviction and the guilt;
(ii) a pardon obliterates the conviction but not the guilt;
(iii) a pardon obliterates neither the conviction nor the guilt
(iv) a pardon obliterates the guilt but not the conviction.
If you subscribe to the theory of retributive justice (punishment should be proportionate to the offense), then (ii) and (iii) are incoherent, because if the offender is forever guilty, then a pardon could not avert punishment. Ultimately, this leaves us then with two choices (i) or (iv).
Divine forgiveness is a theological concept rooted in divine grace and forgiveness, objective and open to all (the ‘whosoever will’; Acts 2:21). It involves (a) the forgiveness of an offense ... and (b) the cancellation of our liability to punishment, that attends sin ... which is likewise the function of a legal pardon. In this respect, the analogy of divine forgiveness as a legal pardon by the executive authority of a state for crimes committed, share similarities. Furthermore, functioning as a legal pardon, the person to whom the pardon is extended, must be willing to receive and accept a pardon, including the guilt implied by it ... before it can be put into effect. This is true whether the source is human or divine.
The sheer breadth of our pardon by God, is something
without parallel in Time and Outside Time.
Analogies do break down at some point, as is the case here, for it is helpful to note that ...
Unlike the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, Presidential pardons do not ‘satisfy justice’. Nor do presidents put themselves in the place of the criminal to ‘pay’ for the crime, as Christ did.
A Presidential pardon does not restore moral character any more than a divine pardon effects moral transformation. However, this is where the Holy Spirit and His sanctifying influence come into play, effectively making divine forgiveness not only profound, but superior in every way.
And finally, a Presidential pardon does not entitle the recipient to an expungement of their criminal record or create the fiction that the offense never occurred. One of the heartbreaks of being human is that once an act is done it can never be undone. So, while Hunter’s 9-count indictment is a matter of record, his pardon did not blot out the fact. We cannot logically say that the ‘act done’ did not occur. The legacy of a divorce or a prison sentence remains in the fabric of space and time – forever.
Not so with Christ! In redemption, things are reframed! Divine forgiveness brings the removal of guilt.3 It also brings the imputation (not infusion) of Christ’s righteousness (we call this Justification) ... and the miracle of ‘Undoing’ the sin, the ‘act done’ ... the ‘fact’ itself - blotting it out as though it had never taken place. More about this in a moment.
Pardon is rooted in law and legality – sparing someone
from the legal penalties of an offense, yet without
changing their moral character. Not so with God.
A Theory of Atonement
Any talk of the wiping of the slate or the cancelling of our liability to punishment, as mentioned earlier, must in my view rest with an atonement theory that features the satisfaction of justice. It is not uncommon for some to quip: “Couldn’t God have just pardoned us without Christ vicariously bearing our punishment; without Christ’s penal substitution? The short answer is that neither God’s love nor His justice can be compromised if He is to make a full pardon of our sins. Therefore, both must be discharged. So which theory of atonement is best?
Moral-Influence theory – which sees no atoning purpose in the Cross;
The Ransom theory – where God offered His Son in exchange for freedom;
The Satisfaction theory – where Jesus satisfies the insult to God’s honour;
The Governmental theory – where the death of Jesus upholds the Law and serves as a public example that God will do whatever He needs to uphold the Laws of government;
Penal-Substitution Atonement (PSA) theory – that Christ bore in His body the full penalty of our sin; suffering ‘in our place’; what we call vicarious atonement.
The view of Christ’s death presented here is the theory of ‘penal [penalty]-substitution [‘in my place’; imputation] atonement’ [reconciliation], the orthodox understanding of Christ’s work common among evangelical theologians.4 His death was ‘penal’ in that He bore a penalty when He died ... and His death was a ‘substitution’ in that He was a substitute for us when He died. This view emphasizes that Christ’s sacrifice satisfied God’s justice and allowed for forgiveness and reconciliation with God. Any full New Testament teaching about the cross involves both expiation (a covering for sin) and propitiation (avoiding divine judgment). That is why the wrath of God cannot be brushed out of the story of the Cross
We ought to think of divine forgiveness of sins as involving legal pardon, not only absolving us of
our liability to punishment, but bestowing on us
inheritance in heaven, adoption, and co-heirship
with Christ – all legal notions.
I used to think that wrath was unworthy of God. I mean, God is “love,’ right? True - but that is precisely why God is wrathful – because in the face of evil, evil people and the carnage they perpetuate, it is indecent to think that God is not angry at the sight of all of this. Indeed, according to Romans 2:5, the ungodly are “storing up wrath” for themselves for God’s final day of judgement. Pretty sobering thought! If you think not, ask Ananias and Saphira, who had first hand experience (Acts 5). This is not about vindictiveness, but truth and in the heart of every one of us, we intrinsically know that injustice deserves justice and cries out for an answer. And an answer they will get, for as Exodus 34:7 reminds us:
“He is a God “who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.”
It is only God’s condemnation of sin in Christ that gives an answer for specific crimes by specific sinners against specific victims. The Gospels’ ‘Good News,’ is the assurance that we have an advocate in Christ (I John 2:1), who has made atonement (expiation / propitiation) for “our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (2:2) ... AND “canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14). Said another way, the value in PSA is that it not only (a) restores us to right relationship with God through divine forgiveness ... but (b) miraculously accomplishes God’s restorative justice by way of His retributive justice portrayed on the cross --- cancelling our liability to punishment and removing the demands of retributive justice. This is why God’s forgiveness can be said to be different from mankind’s. It is complete, unconditional, and transformative.5 But there is more!
The scandal is in revising God’s wrath to a mere metaphor, so that when the chop-job is finished, we can feel better about God ... and especially ourselves.
A Neglected Dimension of Divine Forgiveness
There is a truism – that once a deed is done, it cannot be undone! Or can it? I mean, in His forgiveness our relationship with God is restored and we are not punished for that crime against Him in the future – BUT does His forgiveness undo the time in which it was bound as well; the existing fact itself ... the ‘act done’ – blotting it out as though it had never taken place? I would offer that one of the miracles that accompanies God’s forgiveness of our sin, is that He ‘undoes it’ and the time allotted to it.6 In other words, as I see it, God’s forgiveness is broader and more far-reaching than the judicial meaning alone. I will explain.
In my earlier theologically formative years, I was taught that atonement was God’s way of ‘covering’ the existing fact of my sin committed in time and space. ‘Atonement,’ I was taught, carried the idea of reparation for an offense ... and that the word "kippur", (Hebrew root kapar) often translated as "atonement" or “ransom,” means "to cover over; propitiate". So, in Genesis 6:14, when Noah is told to waterproof the Ark inside and out with pitch (kopher), we can suppose that the waterproofing symbolizes God’s promise of a protective covering from the rising waters of judgment. Interestingly, in over 100 places where the cognate of kopher appears — all of them are translated as appease, reconcile or atonement.
By wiping away our sins, we are assured they
will never again play a role or exert any influence
in our relationship with God.
That said, in reviewing the Scriptures, I’ve come to conclude that the idea of God forgetting our sin, in effect, ‘wiping it away’, could also be wrapped up in ‘Kippur’ language as well. For example, in Jeremiah 18:2 we read “Do not forgive (kippur) their crimes or blot out their sins from your sight,” suggesting that ‘blot out’ (to stroke, rub ... and by implication – erase) is used in parallel to ‘forgive’.7
In Isaiah 43:25, God says, “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for my name sake and remembers your sins no more.” Notice that the ‘blotting out’ is used in parallel with forgetting ... suggesting that God chooses to ‘forget’ sin. My point is, can it be that the act done in time and space is sovereignly disregarded and mysteriously erased from God’s mind to the ‘vault of oblivion’, to quote Miroslave Volf?
A careful reading of Hebrews 10:11-18 suggests that the ‘right sacrifice’ by “this priest” (v. 12) not only forgives, but does indeed “take away sin” (v. 11). Is this the New Testament way of saying the act of my sin is being expunged, erased from my personal history? Notice that the stress here is on the hard work of taking away sin (Expiation - ‘Clear away the record as if it never existed’), not covering (kippur) it. Even John the Baptist points to Jesus (John 1:29) and says, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
Finally, in Acts 3:19 we read, “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away" (ἐξαλειφθῆναι; from exaleiphó: to blot out, erase, obliterate). Notice the joining of repentance to the wiping away of sins. The verb here occurs only five times in the New Testament and always depicts a complete removal. Interestingly, the Septuagint often uses this same verb to translate the Hebrew idea of ‘blotting out’ (Psalm 51:1, Isaiah 43:25). Isaiah 38:17 says He throws all of our sin behind His back. As a metaphor it works, but that does not sound like blotting out to me. Does it to you?
Forgetfulness is not consistent with God’s character,
for He knows everything and forgets nothing. Still,
He treats us as if we never sinned, meaning our sin
has no say in our standing with Him. Wow!
What does Vertical Forgiveness look like? What is happening when ‘God is ‘salekh-ing’ (pardon; forgiveness) us? Does it mean God never remembers our sin again ... or, as the child’s Sunday School song gleefully reminds us – are our sins really “Buried in the deepest sea” ... or, “poof,’ do our sins just disappear forever? Do our sins and the act silently linger in the back of God’s mind? I don’t think so. Can an omniscient God really ‘forget’ our sins? ‘No’, again. Rather, God choosing not to remember our sins (Hebrews 8:12; 10:17) suggests that He is removing them from His accounting of our lives. But the question persists - where is He removing these sins to; where is He forgetting them?
David pined, “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” (Psalm 51:2);
God invites humanity to “reason together” promising that even our deepest of sins (“scarlet”) ... can be made as “white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18);
1 John 1:9 reminds us “If we confess our sins, he ... forgive us ... and purify us ....”
A pardon involves (a) the forgiveness of an offense ... and (b) the cancellation of our liability to punishment, that attends sin. It seems consistent with Scripture however to also conclude that our sin is not only ‘covered,’ but that (c) there is a cosmic erasure of the legal charges that stood against us (Colossians 2:14) AND the existing fact of the act done by us as well. If my proposal is at all accurate, then the Grace of God in pardoning is even more amazing than can be imagined. Think of it! A person says “God forgive me” ... and what God does next, is staggering beyond belief. Yes, I love the way God pardons ... President Biden — not so much.
“OnlySaying ...”
1. Some Christians claim that ‘Nasa’ means “to deceive; to lead astray” – that NASA, the space agency, is guilty of precisely that - telling us the earth is round, when the Bible actually teaches a flat cosmology. Silly! Acronyms and words with similar sounds proves nothing.
2. In Canada -the title Pardon was changed in March, 2012 (Bill C-10) to a “Record Suspension.” This means your criminal record will be kept separate and apart from other records, and won't show up on criminal record checks. To be eligible, you must have completed your sentence. There is a waiting period of 5 or 10 years to be eligible to apply.
3. Does a pardon remove a criminal’s guilt? Here that tense is important, for it recognizes that the offender was guilty, but as a result of his pardon he is now innocent in the eyes of the law. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come” (II Cor 5.17). The pardoned sinner’s guilt is expiated, so that he is legally innocent before God.
4. Brian Zahn, (also Steve Chalke, Greg Boyd) maintain that PSA is the invention of the 16th century Reformation thinking, driven by lawyer John Calvin, and that early Church Fathers held to a Ransom (Christus Victus) theory. This is a painful distortion of history. Actually, the ’Fathers’ were so occupied with the person of Christ (Council of Nicaea, Council of Chalcedon – Christ’s deity / humanity) that they had almost nothing to say about the work of Christ, until the time of Anselm in the Middle Ages.
5. I cannot resist the common critique, like that of Unitarian theologian Faustus Socinus in his On Jesus Christ our Savior (1578) who argues that with PSA the debt is not really forgiven; it’s just transferred, or remitted to the debtor. Not so! Christ’s sacrifice was not a mere transaction, but a substitutionary act that reconciled humanity to God and satisfied his justice.
6. I am not suggesting here that divine forgiveness erases the impact of choices or the legal repercussions, but that is a separate matter for discussion.
7. https://biblehub.com/hebrew/4229.htm. There are 36 O.T. occurrences of “Machah” (מָחָה) of which “Temhi” in Jeremiah 18:23 is a cognate. “Māḥâ thus traces a doctrinal arc from judgment to mercy, from erased sinners to erased sin ...”
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