T o L i V e I s c h r I s t

 

Amazing Grace 

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survival and frightened by the nearness of death that knocked on the door 

with each crashing wave. Desperate and fully expecting to die, Newton finally 

blurted aloud, “If this will not do, the Lord have mercy on us.” The Lord’s name 

from his mouth—that word he only spouted in vain—now struck his heart 

like an arrow, humbling and breaking him. “I was instantly struck by my own 

words. This was the first desire I had breathed for mercy for many years.”

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As with the thief on the cross facing death, the Lord ignited a marvel-

ous work in John Newton’s heart here in this “great day of turning.” Al-

though the precise time of his conversion is unknown,

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 his plea for mercy 

on the sea was immediately answered. And Newton’s heart, which once 

spewed wickedness and blasphemy, would soon become a heart gushing 

beloved hymns of praise to God. The same tongue that spit curses at the 

name of God and made sailors blush would become the tongue that steered 

the corporate worship of God’s people in honoring God’s holy name. This 

drowning wretch of a sailor would pen a hymn that endures in the minds 

and hearts of people to this day, a hymn so popular that its lyrics are as 

recognizable throughout the English-speaking world as any national an-

them. On top of this, the lucrative African slave trade that he participated in 

would be ended, in part because of his abolitionist work. Newton would be-

come a pastor, no longer leading sinners into sin but now enticing sinners 

away from it. In time, hundreds of souls would gather weekly on Sundays 

to listen to his sermons. Only God himself could have imagined what was 

in store for John Newton. Like Jonah running away from God, Newton was 

delivered from death at sea in order to preach the good news.

Though never formally trained, Newton would become a prominent 

pastor in two churches in England for forty-three years. He would befriend 

George Whitefield and John Wesley. As Newton frantically churned the 

water pump on March 21, 1748, he could not have imagined his life physi-

cally continuing; still less could he have imagined his life spiritually thriv-

ing under the incredible plans foreordained by God.

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6

 Aitken, 76.

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 Newton: “I have still some faint remembrance of my pious mother, and the care she took of my educa-

tion, and the impression it made upon me when I was a child, for she died when I was in my seventh year. 

I had even then frequent intervals of serious thoughts. But evil and folly were bound up in my heart; my 

repeated wanderings from the good way became wider and wider; I increased in wickedness as in years: 

But you have my Narrative, and I need not tell you how vile and how miserable I was, and how presump-

tuously I sat in the chair of the scorner, before I was twenty years old. My deliverance from Africa [1747], 

and afterwards from sinking in the ocean [1748], were almost miraculous; but about the year 1749 (I 

cannot exactly fix the date) the Lord, to whom all things are possible, began to soften my obdurate heart” 

(Letters [Taylor], 125).

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 The actual date of the storm as recorded by Newton was March 11 (OS), but due to an eleven-day 

shift in the calendar that occurred in 1752, the successive anniversary was celebrated by Newton on 

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NE W TON ON T HE CHR IS T I A N L IF E

Leading with a Limp

During that frantic night in 1748, one sailor was swept overboard and died, 

but Newton and his other crewmates miraculously survived the storm. 

They endured intense starvation for weeks as the ship limped to shore, 

staying afloat thanks to the buoyant cargo of beeswax and lumber. For the 

remainder of his life, Newton would celebrate March 21 as the annual re-

minder of God’s gracious deliverance of his fragile life. The smashed and 

sinking ship provided a fitting metaphor for his spiritual state; the churn-

ing abyss clawing at him was a fitting metaphor for the flames of hell. He 

had been to the edge of human existence. In desperation, Newton had 

turned to the God he despised, grasped the hope of the gospel, and never 

let go.

From that day until the end of his life, Newton walked with a spiritual 

limp. John Newton was the chief of sinners, and if he could be saved by God’s 

unmerited favor, no person on planet Earth was too wicked or too far beyond 

the reach of God’s grace to be saved. If there is one point of self-understanding 

Newton lived with, it is that his salvation could never have originated within 

himself. Grace broke his life just as powerfully as an unexpected ocean storm 

broke his security. Out of his humble self-awareness, Newton wrote hymns 

as if he were composing words for himself; he preached sermons as a hungry 

sheep himself telling other sheep where to find food; he wrote pastoral let-

ters as a fellow traveler with dusty feet on his own journey to the Celestial 

City, and as a friend with a second crutch he was willing to lend to fellow 

travelers. John Newton lived with a deep and abiding awareness of God’s 

amazing grace that broke into his wicked life. And out of that redemption 

flowed decades of merciful pastoral care for fellow sinners.

How Sweet the Sound

For all the many themes Newton addresses in his ministry, his sermons, 

his hymns, and his letters, one word provides a summary of his life and 

testimony—grace. From start to finish, Newton’s life in Christ was lived in 

grace. Grace was not only a defibrillator jolt at the beginning of his Chris-

tian life; grace was the saving and restraining power of God at every stage. 

“If the Lord were to leave me one hour, I should fall into gross evil. I am 

like a child, who dares not go across Cheapside [a bustling downtown Lon-

March 21 (NS). To avoid confusion I have chosen to use only the memorial date Newton celebrated 

throughout most his life, March 21.

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