How amazing is Grace?
If you only know one Hymn I would
guess that it would be Amazing Grace, so much so that you’ll know the words. ‘Amazing
Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me’. I wonder do you know anything of the author
and that it is in many ways his autobiography?
It may not sound like an autobiography when you know that he was a vicar
and worked to end the slave trade in his latter years. However Newton’s early
life was a long way from where it ended, he was the son of a successful and
well connected ship’s captain. His mother a godly woman gave Newton a good
education but died when he was 7 years old. He rebelled against this teaching
from his pious mother, his well connected father got Newton a job as a
midship-man, a junior officer with the promise of promotion. However Newton who
had disregarded the education his mother had given him, disregarded the Faith
she held also disregarded this
opportunity his father had found for him. He was disrespectful and up to no
good from the beginning. His behaviour
was so bad that he found himself demoted before leaving the ship altogether.
Nonetheless opportunities kept coming his way but Newton wasn’t able to learn
from them. His behaviour and poor choices got this well to do officer’s son
into a lot of scrapes. At one point he was almost a slave in North Africa,
mistreated and poorly fed; he was stealing raw vegetables at night to keep
himself alive. At times he modified his behaviour becoming outwardly religious,
but he soon went back to his cursing, blaspheming and general bad behaviour.
Each time the downward spiral after made him worse than he was before. His language was so bad that he often made
other roguish sailors blush.
Newton at this time would be the
last person you would think of as someone who would be a Christian minister; he
was a vile excuse for a human being. He recognised this in himself as did
others. He truly was a wretch and he knew it.
‘Through many dangers’ Newton
diced with death on a regular basis on one occasion following a drinking game out
at sea. He had to be pulled by the legs
as he went overboard, it was dark, he was drunk and he couldn’t swim. Literally
rescued by the seat of his pants.
This wayward young man he rarely
gave a second thought to his soul was given amazing opportunity; On one
occasion you see the ship was battered in a storm, so much so that it was
sinking. For several days he and the sailors tried to rescue it by bailing out
water but it was taking on more and more water, the situation seemed hopeless, the
holes were filled with their clothing and the food had almost all been washed
away. Everyone on board was convinced that they were only putting off the
inevitable, mere days away from death. It was at this point Newton began to
contemplating his lifestyle and his sin and this led to Newtown the wretch
cried out to God for mercy. He said that he was not sure that someone like him
would have any hope of finding mercy with God.
Yet Newton did find mercy, he no longer had to try to reform his life
and fail as he had done numerous times before, now the work of God had begun in
his life, Newton was transformed.
Like Newton, Saul of Tarsus
wasn’t thinking of finding grace on the road to Damascus, as he headed over to
Syria the last thing on his mind was becoming a follower of Jesus. In fact he
was heading there with the same sort of Ambitions that young Jihadists head to
Syria today, he wanted to kill for his God. He was set on wiping out the
church, on that road you’ll know he was confronted by the risen Jesus, instead
of the judgement that he now knew he deserved he was called to be Paul, the
Apostle to the Gentiles, to reach out and share with them the Good news of
Jesus, Newton and Paul were both trophies of Grace. Paul said of himself that
he was the chief of sinners, yet God saved him. God used the conversion of Saul
the persecutor of the church to glorify Himself.
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