Amazing Grace!

Perhaps the best loved of all hymns, Amazing Grace reminds us that it’s not about how much we’ve sinned, but about how great is the mercy and grace of our God!  It’s a song of hope for the lost and a song of praise to God for His redemption.  What I love best about this song is the story behind the author of this hymn, John Newton.  He wasn’t sitting alongside a quiet stream in England, clad in monk’s robes, with quill in hand, trying to figure out what would rhyme with “wretch like me”.  I believe that these words were formed in the depths of Newton’s soul. I think they welled up from within and spilled out on to paper as he recalled the amazing grace given to him personally. 

John Newton was born to a devoted Christian mom who loved and prayed her son and taught him truths from the Bible every day of his young life.  Unfortunately, Mrs. Newton lost a battle to tuberculosis when John was just seven years old.  Consequently, John was raised by his rough and rugged father who served many years as captain of a ship in the Mediterranean trade.  At the tender age of 11, John went on his first sea-voyage upon his father’s merchant ship and thus began his career as a seaman.   Unfortunately, John Newton ended up in stocks for unruly behavior and then was allowed to join a slaver ship.  Eventually, John became deeply involved in the West African slave trade, where human souls were treated like nothing more than dispensable cargo.  He ruthlessly oversaw the transfer, torture and trade of more than 20,000 men, women and children – many of whom did not survive the journey. 

Newton was aboard the Liverpool, a British ship headed home in 1747 when a life-threatening storm began to batter the ship.  Terrified for his life, Newton recalled the Proverb from the Bible: “Because I have called and ye have refused, … I also will laugh at your calamity."  In that moment, John Newton chose to turn to God and to trust Him with his life.  He didn’t leave the slave trade immediately, but a hatred for the industry gradually arose in his heart until he could stand it no longer.  He quit, found the fullness of God’s grace, plunged himself into the truth of God’s Word, became an ordained minister of the gospel, and wrote a hymn.   (He actually wrote more than just Amazing Grace.  I suppose he had more in his heart that he wanted to pour out onto paper!)

As friend and pastor, Newton went on to become a significant spiritual influence in the life of William Wilberforce, the key British leader of the movement that successfully abolished the slave trade in England in 1807. Think about that. Wow. Amazing, magnificent redemption!

There are two things I especially like from this story of John Newton’s life:

      1.       No matter how deep your sin, His grace is deeper still.

      2.       Christian moms – the prayers you pray for your children are powerful. Don’t give up!

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found; was blind but now I see.