Dear Church Family,
We sing about grace being amazing. If you had to write just fifty words on how grace amazes you, what would you write? Should you be able to sum that topic up with that word limit, you qualify as an incredible wordsmith! Just the first stanza of “Amazing Grace” has 25 words and it barely scratches the surface of the awe that God’s grace should spark. In those few words John Newton marveled at the sweetness of the grace “that saved a wretch like me.” How could he (or anyone) describe himself as a miserable person who is scorned? The verse closes with the wonderful answer, “I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see.” The song goes on to rejoice, not only in God’s saving grace, but also in His sustaining with “’Tis grace hath bro’t me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.”
Newton said near his death, “My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things: ‘That I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Savior!’” The converted slave ship captain turned pastor knew first-hand of the way in which God’s grace transformed him. A rarely published verse shows the confidence he had in God’s grace, “The earth shall soon dissolve like snow, the sun forbear to shine; But God, who called me here below, will be forever mine.”
Newton had the joy of knowing and living in the glorious grace of God. No one deserves it. It cannot be bought for any amount of money. It is free, though it came at the cost of the death of God’s only Son on the cross to pay the penalty of our sin. Newton and his transformed life responded to God’s grace by writing almost 300 other hymn including “Glorious Thing of Thee Are Spoken” and “How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds.” Paul did a similar thing at the end of the ‘doctrinal’ section of Romans 1-11 as he burst into praise. He marveled at “the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God” and ended with great words of praise, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.”
Next week with the help of a friend’s book, I will unpack the difference God’s grace must make in our lives as the people of God. Pray even now that you might be even more amazed by that grace and empowered to live to the glory of God.
With great hope,
Pastor Gillikin