Story of Amazing Grace

This morning we are going to be thinking about the story behind the beloved hymn AMAZING GRACE. The point of this hymn is that God’s grace and love comes to all of us not because we deserve it or have earned it, but because of the nature of God to be gracious and loving.

The author of Amazing Grace is a man named John Newton and he based this hymn on what Paul wrote to the Ephesians in chapter 2:4-10.

Read Ephesians 2:4-10. Notice the phrases about the nature of God contained in these verses: GOD IS RICH IN MERCY, THE GREAT LOVE WITH WHICH HE LOVED US, IMMEASURABLE RICHES OF GOD’S GRACE, GOD’S KINDNESS TOWARD US.

God’s amazing grace is God’s mercy, God’s great love and God’s kindness toward us.


Whenever a survey is conducted of the most popular hymns, AMAZING GRACE is usually ranked as number one. More Christians love to sing this hymn more than any other hymn ever written.

However, the story behind this hymn is also amazing.

In the 1740’s, there was an English ship captain named JOHN NEWTON who traveled to Sierra Leone on the west coast of Africa, sent his men out to capture Africans, put them in chains and haul them to the United States of America to be sold as slaves. Millions of Africans were captured, put into the hold of ships where they received little food and water and many died of starvation and disease on board the ships. If they survived the voyage, they were then sold as slaves along the east coast of the United States and would spend the rest of their lives as unpaid slaves on plantations and in businesses throughout the colonies.

In 1748, however, John Newton and his crew were returning from the United States to Africa to pick up more slaves when their ship encountered a violent storm. The ship was being tossed about by the wind and waves so violently that Newton was sure it would sink and they would all be killed.

Now, John Newton was a cruel and heartless slave ship captain who had no religious convictions at all but in the mist of his fear of death, John Newton cried out over and over again, “LORD, HAVE MERCY ON US.” Eventually the storm subsided and the ship and crew survived.

After the storm was over Newton wondered why he had cried out to a God he didn’t believe in for mercy. And even more he wondered why this God had appeared to answer his prayer and save his life which he knew had been spent inflicting cruelty on other human beings.

John Newton’s life was transformed by his experience of God’s mercy in the midst of a storm and it changed the whole direction of his life. He began to study the Scriptures and to surrender his life into the hands of God. He realized that what he was doing as a slave trader was evil and wrong so he sold his ship, returned to England, got married and studied to become an Anglican priest in the Church of England.

John Newton went from being a slave trader to a Christian minister who then devoted his life to outlawing the slave trade throughout the British Empire.

Newton was an eloquent and powerful preacher and he was eventually assigned to a parish in London where huge crowds came to hear him tell the story of his transformation by the grace of God, and how God’s grace is freely offered to all human beings, and when we receive God’s grace then we surrender ourselves into the hands of God and allow God to use us to overcome evils like slavery in this world.

John Newton became friends with another Anglican priest named John Wesley, the founder of Methodism and attended many services where John Wesley was preaching. Newton was greatly influenced by the 18th century evangelical revival led by John Wesley and George Whitfield.

One of the persons who came to hear John Newton was a member of the House of Commons named WILLIAM WILBERFORCE. Wilberforce was a bright up and up coming member of the House of Commons and he was so inspired by Newton and John Wesley he felt a call by God to work through the Parliament to outlaw slavery in the British Empire.

For 18 years Wilberforce introduced legislation to make the slave trade illegal in the British Empire and he was soundly defeated year after year. However, in March, 1807, two hundred years ago next month, the slave trade was made illegal in England.

Wilberforce is called the ABRAHAM LINCOLN of England because he succeeded in outlawing the slave trade in England 60 years before Lincoln signed the EMANCIPATON PROCLAMATION freeing slave in the United States.

John Newton also discovered he had some ability in writing hymns and wrote about 280 hymns which were published and sung throughout England. In our hymnal we have two hymns by John Newton: AMAZING GRACE and GLORIOUS THINGS OF THEE ARE SPOKEN.

A movie, entitled AMAZING GRACE, which is about the spiritual lives and challenges of JOHN NEWTON and WILLIAM WILBERFORCE in outlawing slavery will open next Friday February 23 in theatres around the country.

This movie was shown at the Heartland Film Festival here in Indianapolis last fall and received the award as a TRULY MOVING MOTION PICTURE.

The heart of the story is the song Amazing Grace which John Newton wrote about his life transforming experience with God which lead him to the ordained ministry and to devote his life to overcome slavery. Here is what Newton wrote:

AMAZING GRACE HOW SWEET THE SOUND THAT SAVED A WRETCH LIKE ME.

Looking back on his life John Newton felt that he was truly a wretch - a cruel and heartless man for what he had done in selling Africans into slavery because of his greed for wealth. But he also felt that God’s amazing grace, love and forgiveness came as a sweet sound into his life and that removed cruelty and greed from his life and gave him a heart of love for God and all of God’s children everywhere.

I ONCE WAS LOST BUT NOW AM FOUND, WAS BLIND BUT NOW I SEE.

Newton realized that he once was lost in his greed and his intense desire for wealth and was blind to the ways he was destroying the lives of thousands of African people.

However, God came into his life in the midst of a storm and he experienced God’s amazing grace and love coming into his life and filling him full to overflowing with the love of God. He spent the rest of his life telling people about God’s amazing grace for all people.

Now, you know the rest of the story behind the song Amazing Grace.

It is the amazing story of how God transformed a greedy, cruel slave ship captain into a loving, compassionate preacher who gave his life to free the people he had once sold into slavery.

If you ever wonder about the power of God to transform a life, we have to look no further than the life of John Newton.

Pastor Millard, St. Luke's UMC