Grace is Always the First Word

Cover of John Newton (Men of Faith)

Pastor Marvin Williams

The film Amazing Grace chronicles William Wilberforce as he endeavors to end the British transatlantic slave trade in the nineteenth century.

Wilberforce had made an earlier visit to his old pastor and friend John Newton. Newton was a former captain of a slave ship prior to his conversion to Christ, and Wilberforce was hopeful that Newton would give an account of his slave-ship days. Newton, however, refused to do so, because the experience and the "20,000 ghosts" haunted him too greatly.

Now, near success in ending the slave trade, Wilberforce visited Newton and discovered that he had recorded his account. His eyesight now gone, Newton said to Wilberforce, "You must use it. Names, records, ship records, ports, people — everything I remember is in here. Although my memory is fading, I remember two things very clearly: I'm a great sinner, and Christ is a great Savior." It was apparent that John Newton had recognized the depth of his sin and opened the door to experience God’s amazing grace in his life.

When we look at John Newton’s life and confession (the composer of the song Amazing Grace), we can easily start patting ourselves on the back. I mean, we have never committed the kinds of atrocities as Newton - kidnapped or raped, sold and separated entire families, committed murder (at least with a gun or a knife), or grand larceny of the human kind. Yet when I think about what we were, we were just as far from God as Newton was before he became a follower of Jesus.

According Romans 5:12-21, we were natural born sinners. We were born in Adam, born in sin, and born condemned. We came out of the womb saying no to God and his purposes for our lives. We were dead in our sins and trespasses. We lived according to the passions of our sinful nature. We were, by nature, children of wrath.

We were liars
We were thieves
We were cheaters
We were swindlers
We were adulterers
We were idolaters
We were greedy
We were disrespectful
We thought we were God.
We lived like practical atheists
We were angry.
We were jealous and envious
We were drunkards
We were ungrateful
We were enemies of God
We were rotten to the core

There was nothing grimmer than our Pre-Christ hopelessness. But God.

In Ephesians 2:4, however, Paul uttered the greatest phrase of hope and grace in human speech: "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, But God, . . .made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved"

God showered his grace on us, and this grace flowed from his loving heart, not based on anything we did to deserve it. When we believed in and embraced Jesus as our Savior and Lord (which was an act of grace) – God gave us new spiritual life within. Praise God!

Therefore, our response to this amazing grace is another word that is built on the word grace, “thank you.” God gives us something that we don’t deserve, so he can get the desired responses, which are praise and thanksgiving. Grace is always the first word and “thank you” should always be the second.

Today, spend some time thinking about God’s amazing and saving grace and thanking him for it.