Only God has the power and authority to pardon the guilty sinner

In one speech at the Holyrood Parliament Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister, brazenly thinks she can revoke and rescind God’s inerrant and infallible laws, as recorded in His perfect Word, and then exonerate every lawbreaker! On 7 November 2017, the First Minister, on behalf of the Scottish Parliament, offered an apology to ‘gay men’ convicted of sexual offences, under historical laws, that are no longer, she claims, ‘illegal.’ Yes, believe it or not, she attempted to forgive those who, in the past, were guilty of homosexual practices! What the Bible unambiguously condemns she commends to the Scottish public.

Acting the part of a religious priest, in a confessional box, she unblushingly said: ‘I categorically, unequivocally and wholeheartedly apologise for those laws and for the hurt and the harm that they caused to so many gay people...these individuals therefore deserve an unqualified apology as well as a pardon!’ Pardon?

Let the truth be known. The First Minister, along with many of her political allies, may not wish to accept it, but God defines, in the Bible, the practice of homosexuality as a sin. It is a distortion of His created order and a violation of His revealed will. This is not my assessment but His. God describes the behaviour as unbiblical, unnatural and unholy and, like every other sin, must be laid at the Cross of Christ , repented of and forsaken.

While politicians may dare, at their peril, to refute it, not one legislator at Holyrood has the power to pardon sin, whether past sin or present sin, not even Nicola Sturgeon. Only God, the supreme Lawgiver, can give full and free pardon for sin. Shame on the First Minister, and her heretical supporters for ‘exchanging the truth of God for a lie’ and ‘calling that which is evil, good.

The reality is that all sin is against God and, as sinners, we are all guilty: ‘for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ All sin is a violation of God's law. Since God is the offended one, God is the lawgiver, God is the judge and executioner, only God has the power and authority to pardon the guilty sinner: ‘Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ When we do confess our sins to Him, and Him alone: ‘He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’ This is the good news, the gospel message of hope!

While homosexuality was illegal in Scotland, until 1980, the practice is still illegal, even in 2018, in the eyes of God. What the supreme law of God says about this sinful practice is not negotiable, and no amount of ‘new legislation’ at Holyrood will change that. Nicola Sturgeon can shout as much as she likes at her ‘worldly confessional box’ on the floor of Holyrood, but what the Divine Judge says about His laws, which have stood the test of time ‘are forever settled in heaven.'

Note: On 31 January 2017 the UK Policing and Crime Bill received Royal Assent – enshrining, in UK law, pardons for those convicted of consensual same-sex relationships.