Gratitude, generosity, honesty, compassion, acts of mercy and self-sacrifice, these things spring unsummoned from a forgiven heart. These things may not happen every day-indeed, one-way love is both rare and surprising-but when they do, they are indelible. But whatever it was, it made all the difference. It could be something as small as a kind word when you were feeling particularly vulnerable, or something as significant as a friend publicly advocating for you despite your obvious guilt. Think about it for a moment in your own life: beneath your happiest moments and closest relationships inevitably lies some instance of being loved in midst of weakness and/or deserved judgment. When Paul Zahl writes that “the one-way love…is the essence of any lasting transformation that takes place in human experience,” he is 100 percent right.
While the Law directs, the Gospel alone delivers. The Law prescribes good works, but only grace can produce them.
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