“Innocent people don’t need pardons.” So shouted the bold Facebook post I saw during the day on January 20.

The post was obviously in reference to the many pardons the outgoing president, Joe Biden, had given earlier that day. On his last day in office, President Biden had given pardons to family members, to members of Congress who had investigated President Trump, along with other individuals, including Dr. Anthony Fauci. This was even though they had not been charged or convicted of any crime. President Biden stated that he did it to avoid any attacks on those individuals by the incoming Trump administration.

So the Facebook post was a protest by an obvious pro-Trump individual against the action that all those people pardoned wouldn’t need it if they were innocent. Of course, the ironic thing was that later that same day, President Trump would give over 1500 pardons to rioters involved in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The right to give pardons to individuals who were convicted of federal crimes is an executive power given to U.S. presidents by the Founding Fathers in the U.S. Constitution. A holdover from the powers of the kings of England, there was much debate as to where that right should be given to U. S. presidents. But it was, and there has often been controversy as to how that authority has been used.

The first president, George Washington, only issued 16 pardons, while Andrew Johnson gave out 7654 pardons, mainly to ex-Confederate soldiers after the Civil War. But the president who gave out the most presidential pardons is the one who just left office, Joe Biden. Biden gave out a total of 8064 pardons, but over 6000 were for individuals convicted of marijuana possession. But probably the most famous presidential pardon was by President Gerald Ford, when he granted a full and unconditional pardon in 1974 to former President Richard Nixon.

Pardon is defined as “to officially say that someone who is guilty of a crime will be allowed to go free and not be punished.” And according to that Facebook post, if you are innocent you don’t need a pardon. Well, I was guilty and I needed a pardon. And a presidential pardon wouldn’t do me any good.

Actually, I wasn’t that bad of a guy. I had never wrecked a public building, like the Capitol, or I had never been involved in shady deals with foreign countries. But, I was still in need of a pardon. Why? It was because I was, and still am, human.

In the Bible, there’s a verse that explained my dilemma. Romans 3:23 states, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” And “all” means everybody, including myself. The truth is that we all know that, even at our best, we don’t measure up and fall short. Not only was I guilty, but it gets worse. Further along in the letter to the Roman church, the Apostle Paul writes that “the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) This means the penalty for sin is eternal separation from God.

So I needed a pardon, and, thankfully, a pardon was provided. But my pardon was not achieved by the stroke of a pen, but by nails on a cross. In that same letter to the Romans, Paul wrote, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) But after telling the penalty of sin, the rest of Romans 6:23 gives us the really good news when it states, “But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

It’s been over fifty years since I accepted that gift, which I didn’t earn, and received a pardon, which I didn’t deserve. And if all means everybody, and it does, then that also includes you. Because we all need a pardon.