We will come to answer this question in a bit, but first, follow along with me into some mental scenery. As the second book of Les Misérables1 draws to a close that magnificent scene between the bishop, the gendarmes, and the silverware-stealing Jean Valjean came to a head. The bishop told these policemen that Jean Valjean had not stolen, but been given the items, and inexplicably had left the more valuable candlesticks behind. The bishop was lying, the police were doubting and Jean Valjean was breaking. That 12th chapter closed and off went Jean Valjean into the 13th.
Perhaps you never knew or have forgotten Petit Gervais, that happy-go-lucky chimneysweep of a boy who came across Jean Valjean. Petit was playing a throw-and-catch game with his coins, but one dropped and rolled toward Valjean who promptly stamped his foot on top of it. The boy begged Valjean and struggled to pull his powerful leg off that coin. Valjean did not relent and Petit Gervais finally ran off crying and without the 40 sous piece.
The bishop’s excessive grace had shone light into the nearly dead heart of Valjean. In that light the theft of even this small coin caused Valjean’s world to explode. Here is a bit of how Hugo put it:
“Faced with all these things, he reeled like a drunk. While he kept on walking this way with a haggard look, did he have any distinct perception of what might be the result of his adventure at Digne? Did he hear those mysterious murmurs that alert or entice the spirit at certain moments of life? Did a voice whisper in his ear that he had just passed through the decisive hour of his destiny, that there was no longer a middle course for him, that if, thereafter, he were not the best of men, he would be the worst, that he must now, so to speak, climb higher than the bishop or fall lower than the convict; that, if he wanted to become good, he must become an angel; that, if he wanted to remain evil, he must become a monster?”
See how Hugo puts it? No longer a middle course for him. He had been one way; he was offered another. He had to choose. The Bishop had set the table before Valjean and the circumstances had brought it to a head.
Skip back in your mind to the scriptures. Let me raise into your mind two other characters who when Christ became involved in their lives no longer had a middle course.
Think back to that day when the Pharisees threw the adulteress on the ground before Jesus. Jesus first placed a choice before the Pharisees who each, in turn, dismissed themselves. Then he offered life back to that woman. She left, but at some moment she had to face up to the implications of her Jesus-adultery-and-the-Pharisees moment; her bishop-and-gendarmes moment. I think Paul had his moment of conviction while sitting blind in Damascus being coached and taught and convicted by the Holy Spirit.
Run back with me to Hugo’s 13th chapter:
His [Valjean’s] conscience considered in turn these two men placed before it, the bishop and Jean Valjean. Anything less than the first would have failed to soften the second. By one of those singular effects peculiar to this kind of ecstasy, as his reverie continued, the bishop grew larger and more resplendent in his eyes; Jean Valjean shrank and faded away. For one instant he was no more than a shadow. Suddenly he disappeared. The bishop alone remained.
The woman and Paul, both sinners in their own extremes met Christ. There they were convicted and responded. Forgiveness came first for the woman followed later by the redemption. Paul, having his moment of conviction after the crucifixion, was redeemed and forgiven. Both were changed. On each was lavished a richness of grace.
Richard A. Ulrich, MD says
Regarding “progressive understanding (and maybe, revelation)?” [Luther wrote of Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD)] – “Augustin did more than all the bishops and popes who cannot hold a candle to him (XXXI. 358 sq.), and more than all the Councils (XXV. 341). If he lived now, he would side with us, but Jerome would condemn us (Bindseil, III. 149). Yet with all his sympathy, Luther could not find his “sola fide.” Augustin, he says, has sometimes erred, and is not to be trusted. “Although good and holy, he was yet lacking in the true faith, as well as the other fathers.” “When the door was opened to me for the understanding of Paul, I was done, with Augustin” (da war es aus mit ihm. Erl. ed., LXII. 119). From “History of The Christian Church” by Philip Schaff [Kindle Edition — location 76331]
This comment from Luther exposes a mental and spiritual highlight that many Christians experience in one way or another. To me, it is grace and growth in action — just like learning and habits develop in the several areas of our lives. God doesn’t change, but we see more of Him and his ways.