Amazing Grace: The rest of the story
Perhaps the most widely known Christian hymn echoed across the pews of churches around the world, no matter how obscure or lacking theologically, is the popular song “Amazing Grace”. On January 1st, 2023, this song celebrated 250yrs since its composure in 1773 by the Rev. John Newton. Though Amazing Grace was his most famous, it was merely one of hundreds of songs written by the late Reverand.
John Newton lost his mother to tuberculosis when he was 7yrs of age, and was raised by his father. His father was a merchant ship captain sailing the Mediterranean, a very stern man, lacking fatherly compassion for his young son John. In his memoirs, John Newton wrote of his father;
“I am persuaded that he loved me but he seemed not willing that I should know it”.
At an early age, John began sailing with his father and became the kind of rough and drunken debaucher that gave sailors their reputation. He was later “pressed” into the Royal Navy and soon tried to desert from the navy. He was caught and flogged brutally for his attempted desertion, chained and whipped, soon traded to a slave ship where John himself would become slave to an African slave trader and his mistress, who despised him.
Ironically, it was that experience as a slave that led him into the slave trading industry. In a short pamphlet he later wrote titled “Thoughts Upon the African Slave Trade”, he wrote of the horrors he experienced in the slave trade. Slaves purchased from the Coast of Africa were already slaves in their native lands, sold and traded like cattle. An average of 20% of those bought and shipped to the Caribbean would not survive the trip. Those that perished from the difficult journey were tossed overboard like garbage. The women were divided up among the crews and raped during the voyages, then divided again at their final destinations for the same purpose. During insurrections, insurgents were tortured and killed when necessary in order to quell any uprisings. These memories as a slave trader would haunt John Newton for the rest of his life.
On March 21, 1748, John Newton was aboard a cargo ship called the “Greyhound” and was caught in a violent storm where it seemed impossible to survive. John prayed that he be saved from the storm, and 4 days later, was rescued. Apparently, a large shipment of beeswax was aboard the vessel, and is the reason the ship did not capsize completely.
John continued in the slave trade for several more years after that incident, but it was the turning point that transformed him from sailor debauchery to Christianity, and later into a career as pastor and song writer. He became one of the leading forces of the abolition movement, testifying before the House of Commons and his writings were influential in the abolition of slavery in England.
To know John’s story provides a more profound insight into the words, “Amazing Grace, that saved a wretch like me, who once was lost, but now is found…..”
While Salvation is certainly the most important aspect of the Amazing Grace of God where we are concerned, salvation is merely the beginning of our new endeavor within the Body of Christ. We will be saved from eternal damnation by confessing our sins and being baptized in Yeshua as our Lord and Savior. But what we do from there will echo for eternity after the judgment of works.
I believe it is safe to say that John Newton, a blasphemous sailor and slave trafficker of the worst kind, having found Amazing Grace, and composed the words that would circle the globe and surpass his life by nearly 2 centuries and counting, has been awarded a very generous judgement settlement among the saints residing in Yehshua’s presence.
As the time of His coming rapidly approaches, consider what it might be that you have been tasked with achieving for the Most High God in this life. We shouldn’t leave anything for undone, the time is now to fulfill our individual callings. While we can be saved by Amazing Grace, our reward at the judgement might be unnecessarily lean if our vision is blurred by the day to day of satan’s world.
We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord 9 Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
(2 Corinthians 5:8-10)
Keep in mind, that forgiveness shall absolve the bad from our records in heaven. We should not carry unforgiveness with us into the next life, we must be atoned for every transgression. Therefore, let there be only an accounting of good deeds to our credit at the judgement seat of Christ. We will be good ambassadors, we will remember the widows and orphans, poor and elderly. We will not bend to the weight of satanic aggression, and will lift up others to bring them out of satan’s world. “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences”. (2 Corinthians 5:11) In Yehshua’s holy name, amen!
