I am Jean Valjean

I’ve been in love with Les Miserables since eighth grade. I’ve loved it in its various incarnations: book, movie, musical, radio drama. But I didn’t know why I loved it until a few years ago, when I was listening to the story and started weeping at its beauty.

That’s when it struck me: this story’s beauty is the beauty of Paul’s gospel.

The Story

You see, as the story opens, the recently freed convict Jean Valjean trudges down the streets of France, looking for a place to stay. Nobody trusts or wants this convict. But after being rejected all day, Valjean finally stumbles on a bishop’s house. This bishop quietly amazes him; instead of rejecting him, the bishop welcomes him kindly, feeding him generously and giving him a place to stay. Nevertheless, Valjean flees at night, stealing the bishop’s silver.

The police catch Valjean with the silver and haul him back to the bishop’s house. And when the bishop sees him, he exclaims, “Am I glad to see you! But, heavens! I gave you the candlesticks, too, you know; they are made of silver like the rest and you can get two hundred francs for them, easily. Why didn’t you take them with the cutlery?”

The bishop then turns to the police: “And he told you that it had been given to him by some old codger of a priest whose place he’d spent the night in? I can see how it looks. So you’ve brought him back here?” Thus he insists that they release Valjean.

Finally, so nobody else can hear, the bishop whispers to the convict, “Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil but to good. It is your soul that I am buying for you; I am taking it away from black thoughts and from the spirit of perdition, and I am giving it back to God.”

And Valjean’s life really does change. He had begun as a man of cruelty, but Mercy struck. And after this holy trauma, he becomes a man of mercy, repeatedly risking his name, reputation, and safety to protect others.

Paul’s Gospel

And as I wept at this story, I realized: this is the story of Paul’s gospel. It begins with justification and continues with sanctification.

When we are justified by faith, God doesn’t just forgive us; He also treats us as if we are righteous. For example, in Paul’s definition of justification in Romans 4:1-8, he doesn’t just say that believers are “forgiven” (v. 7); he also says that they have “righteousness” (vv. 3, 5, and 6).

He doesn’t just bring us from having negative points to having a balance of zero; He gives us a bajillion points. Similarly, He doesn’t just bring us from guilty to neutral; He brings us from guilty to righteous. He brings us from the guilt of Adam to the obedience of Christ (Romans 5:18-19).

This act of mercy (justification) changes their lives (sanctification). By God’s Spirit, this story—God’s story—changes their lives. They stop living for themselves and start living for Jesus (Romans 6). They start to look more and more like Jesus, the Man of mercy (cf. Romans 8:29).

Valjean’s Story—and Ours, Too

And that’s Valjean’s story, too. The bishop not only cancels the debt of the silver he stole; the bishop gives him even more (justification). And this haunts him to his deathbed. But years later, it is a very different Valjean crawling into that grave. One act of mercy has changed his life forever (sanctification). And that—not the bitterness, anger, or cruelty that had once defined him—is his story.

One act of mercy changed my life forever, too. I have been bought for God, not with perishable silver, but with the precious blood of Christ. I have been traumatized by Mercy, branded by gratitude. And that is my story.

It’s a good story. It’s God’s story. And it can be your story, too.