Life-changing

In 1974 I read James Burtchaelle's Philemon's Problem: a Theology of Grace, a book that changed my life.  Let me quote this entire eloquent paragraph:  Unlike ourselves the Father loves us, not for what he finds in us, but for what lies within himself.  It is not because we are good that God loves us, nor only the good among us whom he loves.  It is because he is so unutterably good that God loves us all, good and evil alike.  Put most clearly: the Father of Jesus loves sinners.  He loves  the loveless, the unloving, the unlovable.  He does not detect what is congenial, appealing, sound, or attractive, and respond to it with his favor.  Indeed, he does not respond at all.  He initiates.  His is motiveless love, radiating forth eternally. And because the Father of Jesus is creative, his love originates good rather than rewarding it.  St. Augustine had this in mind when he prayed to God, "By loving me, you made me lovable."