Jean Valjean

Bishop: Now Don't Forget, Don't ever Forget, you've promised to become a new man.
Jean Valjean: Promise? What, Why are you doing this?
Bishop: Jean Valjean my brother you no longer belong to evil. With this silver, I have bought your soul. I've ransomed you from fear and hatred, and now I give you back to God.

I've always loved this story. It's powerful, moving and a testimony to the grace of God demonstrated in our own lives. (Here's a link to the first 10 minutes, by the way, if you've never seen the scene between the Bishop and Valjean.)

Grace is a powerful force and Valjean's life is transformed by a single powerful act of mercy. His life is redeemed and he commits himself to serving God and to being an agent of good in the world. And that commitment is put to the test over and over again as he's pursued interminably by Inspector Javert!

Philip Yancey, in What's So Amazing About Grace?, wrote: "The world thirsts for grace. When grace descends, the world falls silent before it." The Apostle John wrote that Jesus was full of grace and truth and if that's true then no wonder the world was turned upside down by his life and death! He was the Rescuer! The Deliverer for a people enslaved to sin, death and to false religion!

Victor Hugo writes at the end of Les Miserables that as Valjean died: "the light from the candlesticks fell across him; his white face looked up toward heaven." Those candlesticks, which represented Grace to Valjean, were present all throughout his life, even to the very end. What a picture of salvation!

Bono once wrote this about Grace: It's a mind-blowing concept that the God who created the universe might be looking for company, a real relationship with people, but the thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between Grace and Karma...Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I've done a lot of stupid stuff.