It is easy to understand why Isaac Newton’s hymn “Amazing Grace” is
not only a favorite of many Christians, but also of non-Christians.
The famous first line, “Amazing grace! how sweet the sound – that
saved a wretch like me!” is not hyperbole. Rather, it is
autobiographical truth. Newton was indeed “a wretched man” – the
commander of an English slave ship. Yet, eventually God’s grace did
change his hard heart. Leaving the slave business, he spent the last
forty-three years of his life preaching.
The second line of this hymn is particularly meaningful to anyone who
has experienced the deep, positive change brought about through belief
in Jesus, our Lord and Savior: “I once was lost but now am found, Was
blind but now I see.”
God’s grace is indeed amazing! In His grace we find forgiveness and a
new life in which we can not only grow ever closer to the ideals taught
by Jesus, but even aspire to do “greater works” (John 14:12):
12 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works
that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do;
because I go to the Father.”
~ New American Standard Bible
As I’ve written before, these “greater works” are works of love and
compassion. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul the apostle
wrote: “But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest
of these is love.” (I Corinthians 13:13) And as John Wesley wrote to
Isaac Newton in 1765, “Love is the plainest thing in the world.”
Everyone understands love. Unfortunately, there are many in this
world who choose the opposite. Hopefully, many of those will experience
God’s amazing grace before it’s too late.
