Just back from London, where we were treated to Les Miserables by Judith's family. Fantastic. See it if you haven't done already.

There is a powerful example of the gospel as set against the backdrop of an unforgiving law. Jean Valjean is a man recently released from prison who finds that he cannot get a decent job due to his criminal record. A generous bishop grants him a meal and a warm bed but Valjean abuses the bishop's kindness and steals his silverware in the middle of the night. When he is captured and returned, the bishop asks him why he left without taking the candlesticks also and dismisses the charges. Free from the threat of another prison sentence and feeling an overwhelming sense of guilt, Valjean sings the following verses:

Take an eye for an eye, turn your heart into stone.
This is all I have lived for, this is all I have known!
One word from him and I'd be back,
Beneath the lash, upon the rack.
Instead he offers me my freedom.

I feel my shame inside me like a knife
What spirit comes to move my life?
Is there another way to go?

I am reaching but I fall and the night is closing in
As I stare into the void--to the whirlpool of my sin
I'll escape now from the world--from the world of Jean Valjean
Jean Valjean is nothing now, a new story must begin.

Valjean knew the law, but he was totally unfamiliar with the sort of lavish, reckless kindness shown to him by the bishop. This is the way it is with us and God. The law is with us by nature but the gospel message is totally foreign to us. This is why the gospel must be preached to us from the outside, because it is a message that is completely contrary to the world as we know it. So when the bishop preaches to him the good news of mercy and pardon, he is cut to the quick and confesses his sin. But Valjean quickly moves (or "is moved") from confession to sincere repentance by determining to live a new life.

Entertained and thrilled with the gospel.