For God Alone: God's Amazing Grace
We love to sing our songs of Zion, especially with God’s people. Perhaps the most beloved song-of-the-redeemed is John Newton’s Amazing Grace! How Sweet the Sound. In fact, many would call this the world’s most famous and, perhaps, favorite hymn. It is translated into many languages across the globe, printed in some 1300 hymnals, and could be sung with gusto by almost any crowd of people throughout the entire United States at any given moment. It is frequently the hymn of choice for Hollywood film directors in funeral service scenes. Christians and non-Christians alike sing Amazing Grace in times of great joy and celebration, and times of deep sorrow and pain. But, always, the words reassure the believer that it is by God’s amazing grace that we are saved, and we are kept.
Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.
’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed!
The Lord has promised good to me, His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be as long as life endures.
Through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come;
’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.
Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail, and mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess, within the veil, a life of joy and peace.
When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun;
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise, than when we’ve first begun.
Amazing Grace, arr. Mack Wilberg
John Newton (1725-1807) was a slave trader until 1754. While his mother poured scriptures into her son, (she died when he was but seven years old), he did not convert to Christianity until adulthood. His dramatic conversion to Christianity from a life of slave trade and great wealth led to his penning the timeless hymn text, Amazing Grace! How Sweet the Sound. While the text was Newton’s own story, it is your story and mine as well, for it is the story of God saving us completely from our wretchedness in sin (None is righteous, no not one. Romans 3:10), and making of us new creatures (Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17).
While it is in the person of Jesus Christ that God’s grace is fully revealed and completely sealed, we read of that grace throughout the entirety of scriptures.
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. (Numbers 6:24-26)
For if you return to the Lord, your brothers and your children will find compassion with their captors and return to this land. For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him. (2 Chronicles 30:9)
Nevertheless, in your great mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God. (Nehemiah 9:31)
The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
(Psalm 103:8)
Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. (Isaiah 30:18)
Yet even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. (Joel 2:12-13)
Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times. (Matthew 18:21-22)
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:23-26)
But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. (Romans 5:15)
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
(Ephesians 2:8-9)
Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. (2 Timothy 1:8-10)
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. (Titus 2:11-14)
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen. (Revelation 22:21)
Today, if you have accepted and received God’s amazing grace through His only Son, Jesus, then extend that same grace to others.
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith,
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy!
O Divine Master, grant that I may
Not so much seek to be consoled as to console,
To be understood, as to understand,
To be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
And it's in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life
Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, (c. 1182-1226)
Make Me a Channel of Your Peace, Sebastian Temple, 1928-1997
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2svZhZT6Pro (Children’s Chorus)
© Paul R. Magyar, DMA, 2020
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