SEPTEMBER 29, 2014
Amazing
Grace
Read: Ephesians
2:1-10
For by grace you have been saved through faith. —Ephesians 2:8
Pressed into service
in the Royal Navy, John Newton was dismissed for insubordination and turned to
a career trafficking in slaves. Notorious for cursing and blasphemy, Newton
served on a slave ship during the cruelest days of trans-Atlantic slavery,
finally working his way up to captain.
A dramatic conversion
on the high seas set him on the path to grace. He always felt a sense of
undeservedness for his new life. He became a rousing evangelical preacher and
eventually a leader in the abolitionist movement. Newton appeared before
Parliament, giving irrefutable eyewitness testimony to the horror and
immorality of the slave trade. We also know him as the author of the lyrics of
perhaps the best-loved hymn of all time, “Amazing Grace.”
Newton described any
good in himself as an outworking of God’s grace. In doing so, he stands with
these great heroes—a murderer and adulterer (King David), a coward (the apostle
Peter), and a persecutor of Christians (the apostle Paul).
This same grace is
available to all who call upon God, for “in Him we have redemption through His
blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph.
1:7).
Amazing grace—how
sweet the sound—
That saved a wretch
like me!
I once was lost but
now am found,
Was blind but now I
see. —Newton
Lives rooted in God’s
unchanging grace can never be uprooted.
Insight
Here in Ephesians 2,
Paul contrasts a person’s life before being saved by the grace of God to life
after salvation by grace through faith. The first contrast is in verse 1: We
were once “dead in trespasses” but have been made alive. Another contrast is in
our behavior. We once “walked according to the course of this world” (v.2).
Now, as believers, we walk according to good works prepared by God (v.10).
Source:
Our Daily Bread 2012
