A Tennessee pastor is showing the true meaning of forgiveness and grace by forgiving the man who murdered his father 30 years ago.

Ron Hammer gunned down Wayne Robinson outside a Tennessee grocery store in 1986.  On Sunday, Hammer joined pastor Philip Robinson via Skype to talk about his conversion to Christ.  Hammer told New Vision Life Baptist Church that the forgiveness of Pastor Robinson “changed his life.”

“I gave my life to Christ in October of 1996, but I’ve never really received the full blessings that Christ wanted me to have until one day He whispered and told me, ‘Well, you haven’t confessed to the Robinson family.’ And I sat and wrote a letter to Mrs. Robinson (pastor’s mother) and it was 20 years after the crime had taken place. And I told [her] how I had taken your father’s life and how it was an accident and that I never meant to hurt anyone,” said Hammer to Robinson before his congregation on Sunday

Hammer had denied being the gunman for years.

Originally Robinson admitted he had trouble forgiving Hammer.

“I wanted them to pay the full price for their crime,” said Robinson. “A great deal of my life was hanging on their conviction. It felt that way. I figured they would do it again.”

When Hammer reached out 13 years later, Robinson found a path to forgiveness, sending a letter to Hammer that was life changing.

“That letter from you, Phillip, truly touched me,” Hammer told the pastor in front of his congregation. “The words of wisdom and what God had planted in your heart to tell me changed my life that day. I’m so blessed by the forgiveness that you have given me.”

Robinson and his mother even testified in favor of Hammer at a parole hearing that resulted in his release from prison in March.