'For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God.' Ephesians 2:8
The hymn 'Amazing Grace' was the signature tune of the Evangelical Movement in the UK in the 1700s and is still very popular among Christians today. The romantic notion about its writer John Newton, was that he turned from being a captain of a slave ship to a minister of the Gospel after he was converted to Christianity.
However, I discovered having read the book 'The Trader, the Owner, the Slave' by James Walvin (Ref 1) that this was not quite the whole truth. In Part 1 of this book Walvin wrote of John Newton, as a slave trader, then a preacher, a hymn writer and finally an abolitionist not sequentially but concurrently. He had cut his sea-legs working in the Atlantic Slave business plying between the shores of Sierra Leone to the Caribbean islands and passing though the port of Liverpool. He became a Christian after escaping a shipwreck and was a pious Christian with an interest in theology but he continued to engage in the slave trade eventually becoming a slave ship's captain. Christians at that time probably saw nothing wrong with slavery.
Walvin wrote, “Everyone involved in the world of Atlantic slavery, from the captains of the ships through to slave owners in America and the British-based shippers – all of them measured in their thousands, were lured by the hope of profit." But few of them seemed to have any moral or religious qualms about what they were doing. That it wreaked misery on an epic scale for untold millions barely registered among people like Newton who profited from such a business. He would discharged his human cargo, made a handsome profit, then proceeded to discuss God’s word in his cabin and stepped ashore without a scruple.
However, years later, Newton did repent. He regretted and recanted of his past and wrote Amazing Grace, a hymn of repentance, confession and testimony of a life once lost but saved by the grace of God.
'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
'Twas grace that taught
My heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.
Through many dangers
Toil and snares
I have already come
'Twas grace hath brought me
Safe thus far
And grace will lead me home
When we've been there
Ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We'll have no less days
To sing God's praise
Than when we first begun'
In the 1780s, slavery had become a political issue in England. William Wilberforce having been acquainted with him sought his counsel but Newton still maintained his silence on the issue. Finally, Wilberforce persuaded him to take a public stand. In 1788, John Newton published his 'Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade' and explained, “I am bound in conscience to take shame to myself by a public confession, which, however sincere, comes too late to prevent or repair the misery and mischief to which I have, formally been an accessory.” After this, his sermons followed the theme of “Amazing Grace”. They were laced with anecdotes of his past life and sins but with much remorse.
Since then Christians have lived through Hitler’s Germany, the Rwandan massacre and many other such tragedies, oblivious to injustices done to their fellow men and sometimes even perpetrating them. Our Christian conscience can be blind-sighted, our behaviour laced with 'holier than thou' attitudes and our minds prepared to rationalise evil intentions. The heart can be deceitful and desperately wicked.
We can repent. The Bible in Acts 3:19 states 'Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.' No matter what he had done, there was reconciliation and final resolution between John Newton and his God. The same is true for us no matter how ugly or bad we think our sins are. Amazing Grace.
Philip Yancey wrote a book 'What is so Amazing about Grace.' The grace of God, Yancey wrote, separates the sinner from the sin, grace does not excuse sin but it treasures the sinner.
For Charles Wesley the hymn writer, grace became the background music of his life. He wrote
"Long my imprisoned spirit lay
fast bound in sin and nature's night
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray.
I woke. My dungeon flamed with light.
My chains fell off, my heart was free
I rose went forth and followed Thee."
Newton's tombstone reads, "John Newton, Clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy." Truly amazing
Lionel
Ref 1: James Walvin, The Trader, the Owner, the Slave. Random House 2007
First published 12 August 2007.
