When we hear the word “grace”—what’s the first thing that comes to mind?
For many—myself included—we think of the hymn Amazing Grace, particularly the very first line: “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me…” John Newton wrote those famous words, as he reflected on the day he was aboard his ship off the coast of Donegal, Ireland. It was being battered by a severe storm, there was a hole in its side and it was sinking rapidly but amazingly he survived.
Newton was born in 1725 in Wapping, London. He was the son of a shipping merchant Christian family. However, by many accounts, he was not the conforming kind. He renounced his faith, deserted a career in the British Royal Navy and joined the merchant ship slave trade from Africa to the Caribbean and North America. It is said that he would openly mock the Captain by, “Creating obscene poems and songs about him that became so popular the crew began to join in.” When his crew abandoned him in West Africa, because of his extreme behavior, John Newton became a slave himself but was fortunately rescued through the actions of his father. Later, commenting on his abuse and ill-treatment as a slave, he referred to himself as an “Infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves.”
John Newton’s near-death experience led to his gradual conversion to Christianity. He started reading the Bible and other religious literature and studied Theology. He reformed his language and behavior and, although he didn’t give up the slave trade until 1754/5, he ultimately became an anti-slave trade activist. In 1764 John Newton was ordained a Priest in the Church of England and made a curate at Olney, Buckinghamshire. In Olney, the new curate met the poet William Cowper, also a newly-born Christian. Their friendship led to a spiritual collaboration that completed the inspiration for “Amazing Grace,” the poem Newton most likely penned around Christmas of 1772, from his own personal life experiences to illustrate a New Year’s Day sermon in 1773.. Some 60 years later in America, the text was set to the hymn tune, “New Britain,” to which it has been sung ever since.
Few of us have such poetic abilities as John Newton or William Cowper, but many of us have a past that we deeply regret. Many of us may also have found solace in the words of Amazing Grace as we reflected, repented and sought God’s merciful forgiveness. How often have we found ourselves repeating the same wrongs, fallen into the same temptations and thought, why would God want to save a wretch like me?
What exactly is grace anyway?
It is, simply put, the unmerited favor of God; that is, it’s a free gift, an expression of God’s love for us. Grace should never cease to amaze us, and the more we understand what God has done for us through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, the more things in our life change. A true understanding of grace—God’s unmerited favor—the more willing we will be to respond in love, gratitude and obedience, as an important step toward being the people we’ve been created and called to be.