Amazing Grace

John Newton, 1772

What This Song Teaches Us About God

John Newton wrote this hymn from experience that was almost impossible to exaggerate. He had been a slave trader — someone who profited from the capture, transportation, and sale of human beings under brutal conditions. When he wrote “that saved a wretch like me,” he was not using polite religious language. He meant it. Grace that could reach someone like him had to be extraordinary.

Grace means undeserved favor — receiving something good you have no right to claim. “I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see” describes what God did to and for Newton, not what he achieved. Conversion is described as being found and having your eyes opened — both things done to you by someone else. God acts first, and our response follows.

The hymn then carries grace all the way to eternity. “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’d first begun” is saying that the joy of being with God will never get old and never run out.

Scripture Connections

• Ephesians 2:8–9 — Salvation is by grace through faith, not by works, so that no one can boast
• Luke 15:6 — Jesus’s parable of the lost sheep uses the same language — “found” — to describe what God does for those who were away from Him.
• 1 Timothy 1:15–16 — Paul calls himself the “foremost” of sinners, then points to his own life as evidence that Christ’s patience and grace are available for anyone.

Clarifying the Language

“Wretch” — A strong word for someone in a miserable, morally degraded condition. Newton was using this deliberately to describe himself before God’s intervention — not as false humility, but as honest self-assessment.

“‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear” — This means that grace itself gave Newton a proper, healthy reverence for God and a real understanding of his own sin. It felt uncomfortable at first (“my heart to fear”), but it led to relief (“and grace my fears relieved”). Understanding how serious your sin is and how great your need is turns out to be a gift.