In Thomas Hardy's classic Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Tess is a young bride who gambles her happiness, her very future, on her new husband's power to be gracious. She risks everything by telling him, on her wedding night, about a tragic mistake in her past relationship with another man. As she confesses, his body stiffens, his lips become tight, his dry eyes freeze in a blank stare. He has no grace powerful enough to forgive. She gambled on his love, and lost, and her life was over. Confession is a gamble on grace.

Lewis B. Smedes, How Can It Be All Right When Everything Is All Wrong?