I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the movie “Amazing Grace”. The subject matter was worth my time, being both educational and inspirational. I appreciated that Wilberforce's Christian faith and the part it played in his commitment to ending the slave trade in Britain were touched upon. The moments when I cried, however, were when the hymn “Amazing Grace” was sung. I was most inspired by those brief views of John Newton, the author of the famous hymn. The song is the story behind the movie, John Newton is the story behind the song, and grace is the story behind the man. That is the story I want to tell.
In one scene of “Amazing Grace”, John Newton tells Wilberforce of the life of penance he is living to eradicate the “ghosts” of the slaves he transported. The story of “Amazing Grace” is not the story of guilt reducing the penitent sinner to a life of drudgery for atonement. Grace is the story of forgiveness and freedom. That is the story I want to tell.
John Newton was born on June 24, 1725 and first went to sea when he was 11. John's life was hard. He saw firsthand the brutality of a sailor's life where young boys not yet adolescents work 16 hour days and are beaten and often sexually abused. And like many victims of abuse, John Newton grew up to be an abuser and oppressor of others. John was a hard, mean man, known for cursing out preachers and anyone religious and deliberately using foul blasphemies in front of his victims.
Then on May 10, 1748, a gale struck the ship “The Greyhound”, on which John was sailing. As the storm buffeted the ship, the sailors lost all hope. In that desperate moment, John Newton did something he had never done before - he prayed, calling upon the God in whom he had never believed to save him.
The ship made it safely to land. The change in John Newton's life was not immediately overwhelming. He continued to sail on slaving ships, but he began to treat the slaves more humanely. He began to read the works of great Christian teachers of the day. And grace touched John Newton and changed him forever.
John was not transformed over night from a sinner to a saint. Grace does not work like that. Yet grace transformed, a hardened, angry, bitter man into a minister of God's word. Grace made a slave trader into a poet, a writer of hundreds of hymns. Grace gave John Newton peace. Because of grace, there were no ghosts.
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now I'm found.
Was blind, but now I see.
This hymn is one of the most popular hymns ever written. This hymn is a true story of the redemptive work of grace in one man's life. This is the story of how all slaves are set free. Grace is truly amazing.
