Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me…
I’m sitting here listening to Chris Tomlin’s popular rendition of the old hymn ‘Amazing Grace’. For all the times I’ve heard and sung that song I never knew what a wretch was; never even journeyed over to the Oxford University Press Dictionary to figure it out either.
Interestingly enough, a wretch, Oxford’s Dictionary defines as, “an unhappy or unfortunate person.” Further down, it gives the origin of the word. It’s actually from the Old English ‘wrecca’ – meaning ‘banished one’. Looking back to it’s Old English origin – I understood a little better the reality of being a wretch (at least in this context) – it meant to be a ‘banished one’.
This well known hymn was written by John Newton. Newton was a captain on a slave-trade vessel in the mid 1700’s. In his reflections on his past work, and now a pastor, Newton wrote in 1772, the words of Amazing Grace. For Newton, being a banished one was both the feeling of selling people who were banished to foreign lands against their will, and his own feelings of guilt for what he was a part of.
In part catharsis, part personal confession to his role that he played in the slave trade, Newton was preparing a sermon entitled, “Faith’s Review and Expectation”. He used these lyrics to exemplify his sermon.
The truth is simply that we were all banished ones. We were all banished because of sin. We were made slaves to sin. We surely are the wretch saved by this amazing grace that Scripture speaks of so frequently, and that Newton confessed himself in this song of confession, witness and devotion to a God who gave him back his life.
How honored are we; how humbled are we made – to realize that this same God saw it fit to take us, a wretch – a banished one, and to bring us near in His grace. It’s the unmerited favor of God that promises us the best God has. It secures us our eternity and truly gives hope for the present time.
This grace has to be our motivator for missions. It’s the beauty of the Gospel. There are real people, in real places, who have not been brought near; whom are still banished. Yet, through this grace they can be brought near – brought back into the arms of a loving Father. It’s our job for us, those whom have been redeemed by this grace, to go and tell them that they can come back home – to our place of dwelling in the Holy Spirit, in the presence of God.
God graciously invites us all home. We must let people know that they have a Father in Heaven who is waiting for us to come home; a Father who is running towards them with arms wide open, ready to welcome them back into His family and fellowship like the father running towards the lost son in Luke 15:11-32.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.‘ But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.” (NIV)
