The Pardon of William Calley

On September 4, 1974, President Gerald Ford signed Proclamation 4311, granting Richard Nixon a full and unconditional pardon for any crimes he might have committed as president. Ford paid an enormous political price. But decades earlier, a lesser-known pardon illuminated the same principle Paul unfolds in Romans 4.

In 1830, George Wilson was convicted of robbing the U.S. Mail and sentenced to death by hanging. President Andrew Jackson issued Wilson a formal pardon. Remarkably, Wilson refused it. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, where Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that a pardon is merely a piece of paper unless the recipient accepts it.

This is precisely what Paul argues about Abraham. The patriarch did not earn his standing before God through circumcision, moral achievement, or meticulous law-keeping. Instead, Abraham simply believed the promise of the Almighty — that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars — and God credited that trust as righteousness. The gift was offered. Abraham received it.

Paul's logic is startlingly simple: to the one who works, wages are not a gift but an obligation. But to the one who does not work but trusts the God who justifies the ungodly, faith is credited as righteousness.

Every Sunday, the same pardon is extended. The question Marshall posed still echoes: Will you receive what has already been signed on your behalf?