AMAZING GRACE: FIRST VERSE
Scott R. Bayles, pastor
Adapted from Capture by Grace by David Jeremiah
First Christian Church, Rosiclare, Illinois
St. Augustine once wrapped a powerful thought in vivid imagery when he said, “God always pours His grace into empty hands.” No ones hands could have been emptier than John Newton’s.
His father commanded a merchant ship and was always at sea. His mother raised him as best she could, teaching him the Scriptures and sacred songs. Sadly, his mother died just before his seventeenth birthday and it would be his father’s footstep in which John would follow. By the time he was seventeen, John Newton’s world was the open sea. The world of the Spirit, as lovingly taught by his mother, had vanished over the horizon and was lost as sea—much like Newton’s own soul.
In his own words, John’s “delight and habitual practice was wickedness,” and he “neither feared God nor regarded men.” In short, he was “a slave to doing wickedness and delighted in sinfulness.”
After a short stint in England’s wartime navy, John was dishonorably discharged and then made his way to Africa aboard a freighter. In the shadow of the Dark Continent, John Newton was finally hired aboard a slave ship, where African men, women and children were treated like cargo and shipped across the Atlantic as slaves.
Then, in March of 1748, somewhere in the middle of the North Atlantic, grace arrived. The hand of God rescued a shipwrecked soul. A violent storm had engulfed the small slave ship. All hands were awake. Voices were shouting with urgency. Water was beginning to flood the hold. Newton wondered if this was how it was all going to end—entombed on the ocean floor. Then something remarkable happened—John Newton began praying. Later, he would surrender his life to Jesus and eventually become a pastor. He preached the Gospel until the venerable age of eighty-one.
Newton especially loved crafting sermons and hymns together. Reflecting on his life as a slave trader and his conversion to Christ, John Newton wrote the cherished hymn Amazing Grace. Today, shoppers at Amazon.com can choose from nearly 4,000 separate renditions of John Newton’s old hymn. It’s been around for over two hundred years. It comes in every style, crosses every border, and reaches any and every ear. When it’s announced at church, people stand a little taller to sing it. They lift their voices a bit higher. Some feel that, just for a moment, they are catching a glimpse through the gates of heaven.
Literally hundreds of hymnals have been published and gone out-of-print, yet Amazing Grace can be found in every single one of them. I believe that one of the reasons that this hymn has been so singularly loved and enduring is that every single verse conveys some powerful element of God’s truly amazing grace.
Today, I’d like to unpack this classic hymn and see if we can discover just how amazing God’s grace really is. It all begins with the captivation presence of grace.
• THE CAPTIVATING PRESENCE OF GRACE
The song, Amazing Grace, has captivated the hearts and minds of worshippers for generations, but I don’t believe it’s the melody or harmony that is so inspiring. It isn’t really the song itself; rather it’s the presence of God’s grace within it that captivates us and compels us to listen. The first words of this enduring hymn declare: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound...” And therein lays the secret to the song’s staying power—it is the captivating presence of grace. As Martin Lloyd-Jones has said, “There is no more wonderful word than grace. It means unmerited favor or kindness shown to one who is utterly undeserving... It is not just a free gift, but a free gift to those who deserve exactly the opposite.”
Some once said that grace is a five letter word often spelled J-E-S-U-S. If Newton’s hymn is the melody that embodies the concept of grace, then Jesus is without a doubt the Man who embodies it. Jesus was and is the once-for-all, perfect human image of grace, love and truth. The Bible says that Christ “became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.... For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:14-17 NIV). Jesus constantly demonstrated grace to the people around him. He showed grace to a thirsty woman at the Samarian well. He lavished grace upon a woman at the Temple courtyard who had been caught in adultery. He showered grace upon Peter who had abandoned him in his hour of need. These moments of grace scattered throughout the pages of the Gospels command our attention—not with a shout, but with a still small voice.
My wife, Ashley, once told me about a moment of grace that will forever remain in her memory. One icy November afternoon when she was in high school, a carload of teenage boys were on their way to a basketball game. Ashley was a cheerleader and had already arrived at the game along with most of the other basketball players and dancers who rode in the bus. But these four junior varsity boys choose to carpool together, rather than taking the bus with the rest of the students. They never made it to the game. On the way, a garbage truck came sliding through an intersection on a patch of black ice and broadsided the boy’s car. One of them suffered a broken arm. Another was in a coma for a week. And one boy, Jared Malarkey, was killed instantly.
The driver of the garbage truck wasn’t injured; at least, not physically. He wasn’t the devil. He was just a guy trying to do his job. Maybe he had one too many late nights. Maybe he was driving a little too fast. But in the blink of an eye, he had the injuries of three young men and the death of one on his hands and in his heart. I can only imagine the guilt and remorse that kept him up at night. Then, not long after the funeral, his phone rang. The Malarkey family, the parents of the boy who died, wanted to meet the man who killed their son. I’m sure he had no desire to look them in the eyes, but he conceded anyway. I imagine his hand was probably trembling when he reached out to knock on their door. What would he see in their eyes? Hatred? Anger? Worst of all, pain? But when the door opened, he saw none of those things. Instead, he saw compassion. They hugged him and welcomed him into their house. They served him dinner. And he must had chocked back tears when they assured him, “We forgive you.”
A moment of grace can change a lifetime. In fact, a moment of grace can change an eternity. The captivating presence of grace is the first element of God’s grace revealed in John Newton’s hymn. It’s what sucks us in and demands our attention—“how sweet the sound”! Next we see the compassionate purpose of grace.
• THE COMPASSIONATE PURPOSE OF GRACE
Without mincing words, in the second stanza of the song, John Newton admits that it was God’s amazing grace “that saved a wretch like me.”
To understand the wonder of grace through the eyes of John Newton, you have to have some knowledge of his wretchedness. Newton once wrote of himself, “My daily life was a course of the most terrible blasphemy and profaneness. I don’t believe that I have ever since met so daring a blasphemer as myself. Not content with common profanities and cursing, I daily invented new ones…” And, of course, he spent a good part of his life as the Captain of a slave ship, trading in human cargo. His soul was in deep exile, farther away than any ship could have carried it. Newton was—by his own admission and any definition—a wretch. But he’s not alone.
Let me ask you, how do you feel when you sing that phrase “a wretch like me”? Some of us belt out that line with a smile one our face, like we have no idea what we’re saying about ourselves. But the truth is—each one of us is every bit the wretch that John Newton was. In of the darkest pits of Scripture, the Bible says, “No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one” (Romans 3:10-12 NTL).
In other words, every single one of us is saturated in sin—but that’s where grace comes in. Only when you come face to face with the darkness within your soul, does God’s grace become truly amazing. The compassionate purpose of grace is to save all of us wretches. Paul said it clearly and concisely: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8 ESV).
Several years ago, a very peculiar sight could be seen at a large downtown church in England. On the first Sunday of the New Year, an ex-convict knelt to receive communion beside the judge who had sentenced him to seven years in prison. After being sentenced, the young convict was lead to Christ through the church’s prison ministry. After his release he became an active member of the church. After church, the judge was walking home with the pastor and said to him, “What a miracle of grace.”
“You mean the former thief who knelt beside you today?” the pastor asked.
“No. I was thinking of myself,” the judge said. “That young man had nothing but a history of crime behind him, and when he saw Jesus as his Savior he knew there was salvation and hope and joy for him. And he knew how much he needed that help. But look at me. I was taught from earliest infancy to live as a gentleman; that my word was to be my bond; that I was to say my prayers, go to church, take communion and so on. I went to Oxford, earned my degrees, was called to the bar and eventually became a judge. Pastor, nothing but the grace of God could have caused me to admit that I was a sinner in need of a Savior.”
The Bible confirms the judges observation: “All have sinned and are not good enough for God’s glory, and all need to be made right with God by his grace, which is a free gift” (Romans 3:23 NCV). But, you know, the story of that young convict also points us to the next element of God’s grace—the changing power of grace.
• THE CHANGING POWER OF GRACE
John Newton eloquently describes the changing power of grace in the third stanza: “I once was lost, but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.” Like the ex-convict in England, John Newton experienced a radical transformation thanks to the changing power of grace. But it didn’t happen overnight.
Those who love the story behind Amazing Grace sometimes imagine Netwon experiencing his moment of grace, ordering the ship full astern, and quickly sitting down to pen the verses to Amazing Grace.
History tells a slightly different story—the story of a slaver trader docking in Liverpool and then promptly signing on for another voyage to Africa. There he traveled from slave factory to slave factory, buying slaves and storing them in his ship, just like always. He sailed to the New World with as many as two hundred slaves packed into shelves in the holding beneath him. On many voyages as much as one-third of the men, women and children died. You see, at the time most believers, sadly, didn’t see slavery as evil. Several years passed before Newton abandoned the slave trade to become a pastor. But all the while, he was reading his Bible and learning to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit more clearly as time went on. Slowly, his worldview began to change. He began to change. He started to see the world through the eyes of the Father and to be lead by the heart of Jesus. He experienced a dawning horror about the true evil of his occupation.
Twenty-five years later, Newton would finally pen the words to the most beloved hymn of all time. And, in 1788, he published a ten-thousand-word confessional pamphlet, Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade, in which he confessed his own part in the trade and openly denounced its practice. He wrote, “I hope it will always be a subject of humiliating reflection to me, that I was once an active member instrument in a business at which my heart now shudders.”
The transformation that John Newton experienced wasn’t a fluke. It wasn’t unique to him. Nor was it by his own inner strength or good intention. Rather, it came about because of the inward work of the Holy Spirit, who lives within every believer. Listen to what the Apostle Paul had to say about the changing power of the Holy Spirit:
Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (Romans 8:5-9 NLT)
Paul knew the changing power of God’s grace first hand. He, too, was once blind (literally). God struck Paul blind on the road to Damascus, where he was planning to arrest and perhaps kill anyone whom he found that was following Jesus. Then, Paul saw the light. He met Jesus on that road. The scales fell from his eyes. And, like John Newton, he could sing, “I once was blind, but now I see.”
The Holy Spirit will not let you be content in your blindness. He wouldn’t allow it for Paul. He wouldn’t allow it for John Newton. Be assured, he won’t allow it for you. He longs to pull back the curtain of sin and let in the light of grace that will make your world sparkle with the bright colors of paradise.
Maybe your life was dramatically and instantly changed when you encountered God’s grace, like Paul’s was. Or maybe it took several years for the transformation to take place, as it did with John Newton. In reality—we’re all still experiencing the changing power of grace. Not until God has fully replaced your old stubborn heart with the heart of Jesus will that transformation ever be complete. It’s a life long process. But it all begins when you realize that you are lost and blind, and you allow Jesus to find you and open your eyes. Then you can sing along with John Newton and the Apostle Paul, “I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.”
Conclusion:
It’s no wonder this hymn has been more enduring and inspiring than any other. At the heart of Newton’s hymn is the heart of the gospel—God’s amazing grace. It tells us of the captivating presence of grace, the compassionate purpose of grace, and the changing power of grace. But that’s just the first verse! Come back next week and we’ll explore the second verse of Amazing Grace.
Invitation:
In the meantime, we’re going to stand up and sing this wonderful song of praise. As we do, I want to encourage you to look within your heart. Are you in need the captivating presence, the compassionate purpose or the changing power of God’s amazing grace? One of the most amazing things about God’s grace is that it’s always available. If you realize that you are wretch that needs to be saved or lost and need to be found, or blind and you want to see clearly—then God’s grace is available to you. No mater who you are, where you’re from or what you’ve done, God’s grace is still amazing!
