John Newton - The Story behind Amazing Grace
John Newton, a great blasphemer?
Although Amazing Grace has some amazing theology and it is a great reminder and encouragement to many who can truly sing the world renown song, in it’s infancy it is Newton’s own heartfelt expression of gratitude to God, who helped him turn from his profane and wicked life where he was a “great sinner” to a place where he was able to call the great saviour, His Lord and His Saviour.
Lost at Sea
Its canvas sails were ripped, and the wood on one side of the ship had been torn away and splintered as the Greyhound fought a north Atlantic storm for over a week. With little hope hope of survival the sailors continued to work the pumps, trying to keep the ship afloat. After 11 days of the storm, sailor John Newton was too exhausted to pump, so for the following 11 hours John Newton was tied to the helm and tried to hold the ship to its course.
During these 11 hours John Newton came to the realisation that his life seemed as ruined and wrecked as the battered ship he was trying to steer through the storm. Since the age of eleven, he had lived a life at sea. Sailors were not noted for the refinement of their manners, but Newton had a reputation for profanity, coarseness, and debauchery which even shocked many a sailor.
Childhood Lessons
John Newton was known as "The Great Blasphemer." His life had sank so low at one point that he was even a servant to slaves in Africa for a brief period. At that point so far from the hopes and prayers of his mother who had continuously prayed he would become a minister, teaching him the Bibles and Isaac Watts' Divine Songs for Children. Some of those early childhood lessons came to mind now, particularly the verses from Proverbs 1:24-31, which in the midst of that storm, in his time of despair, seemed to ring so true:
"“I called you so often, but you wouldn’t come. I reached out to you, but you paid no attention. You ignored my advice and rejected the correction I offered. So I will laugh when you are in trouble! I will mock you when disaster overtakes you— when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster engulfs you like a cyclone, and anguish and distress overwhelm you. “When they cry for help, I will not answer. Though they anxiously search for me, they will not find me. 29 For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the Lord. They rejected my advice and paid no attention when I corrected them. Therefore, they must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way, choking on their own schemes."
John Newton had rejected the bible and all his mother had taught him, but not only had he rejected this but he had led other sailors into unbelief. When it was all considered, there were no doubts in his mind, he was beyond hope and beyond saving, even if the Bible was true. And yet, even though the storm had passed, Newton's thoughts kept returning to Christ. He managed to find a New Testament Bible and began to read where in Luke 11:13 he seemed to find assurance that God might actually still hear him: "So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him."
Deliverance
That day at the helm, March 21, 1748, was a day Newton never forgot, for "On that day the Lord sent from on high and delivered me out of deep waters." 57 years yeas later, to the day he wrote in his journal: "Not well able to write; but I endeavor to observe the return of this day with humiliation, prayer, and praise." Only God's amazing grace could and would take a rude, profane, slave-trading sailor and transform him into a child of God. Newton never ceased to stand in awe of God's work in his life.
A changed life
Change did not come quickly to John though, he continued in his profession of sailing and slave-trading for a time, but his life was truly transformed. With a disciplined schedule of Bible study, prayer, and Christian reading he tried to be a Christian example to the sailors under his command. With spiritual comfort from Philip Doddridge's The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul provided and support from a Christian captain he met of the cost of Africa Newton’s life begun to see radical changes. He left slave-trading and took the job of tide surveyor at Liverpool, but he was settled in that role as he truly believed he had been called to serve the Lord in ministry. All those years of prayer by his mother, had been answered in God’s timing, and in 1764, at the age of thirty-nine, John Newton began forty-three years of preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ, his great saviour.
Newton and his much loved wife Mary (At the end of his life John would write that their love "equaled all that the writers of romance have imagined") moved to the little market town of Olney. With his mornings dedicated to studying God’s word he would then he out in the afternoon to visit his congregation. There were regular Sunday morning and afternoon services as well as meetings for children and young people. There was also a Tuesday evening prayer meeting which was always well attended.
Amazing Grace
Gifted with the ability to write songs (once again possibly from the early exposure to Divine Songs by his mother), John Newton would often composed a hymn which expanded on the lessons and verses for his services. In 1779, two hundred and eighty of these were collected and combined with sixty-eight hymns by Newton's friend and parishioner, William Cowper, and published as the Olney Hymns. The most famous of all the Olney Hymns, "Faith's Review and Expectation," grew out of David's service on 1 Chronicles 17:16-17:
“Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? 17 And now, O God, in addition to everything else, you speak of giving your servant a lasting dynasty! You speak as though I were someone very great,[b] O Lord God!
Today known around the world and sung by billions it goes by the name "Amazing Grace." Many other of the hymns found within the Olney publication continue to be sung today inlcuding "How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds," and "Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken."
Abolition of Slavery
In 1779 Newton left Olney to become the pastor at St. Mary Woolnoth in London. His time here not only included serving a preaching faithfully to the London poor and the merchant class but also to the wealthy and influential. William Wilberforce, a member of Parliament and a key figure the abolition of slavery, was strongly influenced by John Newton's life and preaching. Newton's own experiences as a slave trader, were very important in securing British abolition of slavery, while he also influenced missionaries William Carey and Henry Martyn.
Newton lived to be eighty-two years old and continued to preach until his health prevented this in the final few years of his life. Even then, Newton never ceased to be amazed by God's grace and told his friends: