Amazing is His Grace: Though our sins are as crimson...

on August 11, 2020

“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I am found, was blind but now I see.”
-excerpt taken from “Amazing Grace” written by John Newton

Did you know that the man who wrote this song was by his own accounts a disgusting, vile, reprobate of a human being! Did you know that he committed some of the most despicable, disgusting acts of violence against other members of mankind!

Well he did! His name is John Newton. Who is John Newton? A man who was forever changed by the saving Grace of our God!

John Newton

Born in the year of 1725, John spent most of his formative years under the Godly teachings of his mother. Sadly, John would lose his mother at a very young age and he would end up working on the sea with his father. This life change would start John down a road that would lead to him working on slave ships, him becoming a slave himself, him find the saving grace of our Lord and him spending the rest of his life remembering how the Lord made his sins as white as snow:

“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” -(Isaiah 1:18 KJV)

Slave ships

John would go from working on ships with his father to working on slave ships. At this point in his life, John was a self pronounced atheist who believed in living his life the way that he pleased. Believing that there was no one or nothing that he would ever give into account for!

During his time on slave ships, John relished in the idea of inflicting the most heinous, disgusting, vile, despicable acts against the innocent men and women whom he and his crewman deemed as “cargo”! John had a blast; he was so bad among the men who themselves were vile, disgusting human beings; that the ship’s captain looked at him and said; “You have to go!”

Soon, John would be sold into the very same institution that he derived so much pleasure in participating in!

The reward of his hand

After spending years as a tormentor; John would soon feel the torments that he once derived pleasure in inflicting. For as the precious prophet Isaiah reminds us:

“Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.” - (Isaiah 3:11 KJV)

Eventually, John would regain his freedom. It was during this time, as he sailed back home that he would hear a voice that most who once denied Christ say that they hear: what if it is true?

What if it is true?

On John’s voyage home; he stumbled across a New Testament. He began to read it as though it was fiction; with an unshakable feeling of what if this is true? One night, after narrowly escaping a near death experience on the ship; John fell down and cried out for God’s saving Grace.

John, the atheist, the man who enjoyed committing some of the most inhumane acts of violence had now realized that he needed a Savior.

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” - (Romans 3:23-26 KJV)

On that ship that night, John fell to his face and begged for our God’s saving Grace.

Amazing Grace

“Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed.”
-excerpt taken from “Amazing Grace” written by John Newton

There are different variations of John’s actions after he accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior; regardless of these varying stories one thing is clear from reading John’s lyrics and from reviewing the script that he wrote for his tombstone; Jesus Christ saved him!

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.” - (Ephesians 2:8 KJV)

“Once an infidel and libertine a servant of slaves in Africa was by the rich mercy of our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST preserved, restored, pardoned and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy.”
-excerpt taken from John Newtons tombstone

“Amazing Grace” and John’s epitaph both clearly written from the perspective of a man who truly understood the saving Grace of God.