Jesus gained the power to love harlots, bullies, and ruffians… he was able to do this only because he saw through the filth and crust of degeneration, because his eye caught the divine original which is hidden in every way–in every man!… Jesus did not identify the person with his sin, but rather saw in this sin something alien, something that really did not belong to him, something that merely chained and mastered him and from which he would free him and bring him back to his real self. Jesus was able to love men because he loved them right through the layer of mud.

- Helmut Thielicke