Amazing Grace
“It is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” – Ephesians 2:8-9
John Newton was a slave trader and a freethinker. He lived his life opposite to what would be honoring to God. He was described as a man whose curses and lifestyle expressed his revulsion against the very idea of God’s existence.
One day out at sea, the slave-trading boat that Newton was on began to break apart in an incredibly furious storm. Something snapped in Newton’s mind and he remembered a verse of Scripture he had heard as a child: “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” (Matthew 7:11, KJV).
“God, if this is true,” Newton prayed earnestly, “make good Your Word. Cleanse my vile heart.”
Four weeks later, in April 1748, the ship limped into an Irish harbor. Newton went to church and professed Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.
The song that best expresses his redemption is one of the most popular songs ever sung in the Christian faith:
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.
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed!
Through many dangers, toils, and snares,
I have already come;
‘Tis grace that brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we first begun.
See you Thursday night!
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