The Origin of the Song, Amazing Grace

This is a story about a man named John Newton. He was born in London in 1725. His father was the commander of a merchant ship that sailed in the Mediterranean. Little was written about his mother, except that she taught John what he knew about God. She died when John was young. At the age of eleven, John began sailing on long voyages with his father.

After his father retired, in 1744, John was on his way to Jamaica to take a position as a slave master, but instead, he was called into service on an English naval warship, the H.M.S. Harwhich. Conditions were terrible, and John deserted. Then he was caught, flogged, and demoted to a seaman.

It was after this that John requested that he be exchanged. He was sent into service on a slave ship. As the slave trader's servant, he was brutally abused until 1748, when another ship captain, a friend of John's father, rescued him. John later went on to become the captain of his own slave ship. On his ship, the slaves were brutally abused.

"Lord, have mercy upon us."

It was John who called out those words, on a homeward voyage to England. His ship was about to sink during a violent storm. Until this moment, John had not given any thought to God, not since his early childhood with his mother. He had, by all accounts, been a true wretch. He knew he deserved no mercy.

But God showed him mercy. John called this moment in the storm his "great deliverance," God saved him from the storm, but more than that, this was the turning point of his life. This was when John said grace began to work for him. He observed that day, May 10th, 1748, as the day of his conversion.

"Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,

And grace my fears relieved;"

John's own words, written years later, describe the horror of the slave trade. I will not go into the lurid details, but frankly, it takes no stretch of the imagination to understand that John understood the depravity of his sin. The word scandalous is often paired with the term, grace. The grace that is available to all of us is not something of this world, and it’s hard to understand. It offends our sense of justice. Yes, God is a just God, and sin does not go unpunished. We could never pay the price or bear the punishment of our sins, so Jesus paid it all for us. Grace is costly, though not for us. For us, one of the biggest hurdles might be accepting that it's truly a gift. There's nothing we can do to earn it. 

John's story isn’t a story of instantaneous conversion, though, not from society's viewpoint. John still worked as a slave trader for a time after his conversion. Grace was quietly working in his heart, and he was a changed man, but it took time for the fruit of that grace to become apparent.

Eventually, John gave up the slave trade, married, and began educating himself. He became friends with George Whitfield, the Calvinistic Methodist Church leader, and John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. John, too, wanted to become a minister.

He began preaching about the scandalous grace of the cross which saved him. He became friends with the poet William Cowper, and together, they collaborated on a hymnal. And the result … one of the most well-loved hymns of all time, Amazing Grace.

"I once was blind, but now I see,"

The lyrics take on a deeper meaning when more of the story is known.

John's preaching drew large congregations, and he influenced many, including William Wilberforce, who later became a leader in the campaign to abolish slavery in the British Empire. John eventually became blind from an illness, but he continued to preach until a year before his death. He was a changed man, a visible light of God's love, bringing glory to his Savior.

John Newton credits the grace of God for redeeming his life. He was profoundly changed by grace. He recognized how much he needed it because he knew how wretched his sin was. But even that cognizance was not to his credit, even that was grace … evidence of the Holy Spirit changing his heart.

I want grace to change me too. It has, and it is. God's grace is changing me, and his work is not done. My sin may not look as wretched as John Newton's, yet it is—in God's eyes. I am no more deserving of God's mercy than John was. Nobody is. It’s a beautiful, amazing, scandalous, awe-inspiring gift, and it’s available to all who will accept it. I pray that the truth of God's grace will continue its work in my heart--and your heart too. 

The theme of grace inspired my latest novel. I choose a verse for each of my books. Palmer Girl’s verse is:

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast" Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)

Elizabeth, my main character, is someone who is struggling with guilt from her past. She falls for the lie that through personal self-sacrifice she might be able to find some kind of redemption. Her spiritual journey is one that I believe many of us can relate to. Will she learn to accept the grace that’s made possible through Jesus? That’s one of the questions that will only be answered if you read the book!

Palmer Girl is available for pre-order now, and will be released in both paperback and digital wherever books are sold online on 9.29.2020.