Amazing Grace is a Christian hymn widely sung in the world. It was written by a slave trader, John Newton in 1770s. Newton was an ordained Anglican priest and his journey to priesthood was not a usual one. He was a son of a merchant ship commander and his father took him in some of the voyages when he was 11 years old. John lived a desperate life that was sinful and wretched up as a slave trader. He joined the naval service where he became a mid shipman, the job he did not like. His job changed to a common seaman and due to this humiliation, he thought of committing suicide (Aitken 29).
In one of the slave expeditions, Newton faced a storm, he prayed to God and survived. On one occasion, John fell into the sea. In an attempt to rescue him, his fellow crew threw a hook on him which hooked his thigh, they pulled him to safety and from there onward, John walked with a limp. John’s mother died of tuberculosis and he was left with a family friend to take care of him. These are the acts that led Newton to compose the song because he saw how God’s grace was amazing. The song was personal to John as it was a song of salvation and redemption. Newton was a sinner but through the amazing grace of God, he is now found (Aitken 17).
God’s grace is not of this world and it is supernatural, that’s why Newton refers to it as to an amazing one. People think that religion is the making of an individual’s mind and that it is under the influence of the person acting on it. No man can give or take away another man’s grace. John suffered from a stroke that incapacitated him and he was unable to return to the sea. He saw this as a test to his spiritual well-being and it motivated him to study Christianity further (Steel 36). Christians believe that the son of God Jesus Christ will save them from the evil through the repentance. The blood of Jesus Christ on the cross washes away the sins Christians commit. They believe that grace washes away their sins and a wretch like John got his salvation because of God’s grace.
John became an Anglican priest after he left the slave trade. “Amazing Grace is at its heart the hymn-equivalent of what Christians believe is the greatest redemption story in history” (Shmoop Editorial Team par. 3). John’s redemption was spiritual and had God’s grace in it. The song talks of the harm that would befall a Christian if he doesnt rely on God. It brings the picture of someone who has experienced “many dangers, toils, and snares” (Shmoop Editorial Team par. 3) but the grace of God saved him and he is now safe. It tells about forgiveness and celebration of life after death. “They may have been lost, but now they’re found, blind, but now they see” (Shmoop Editorial Team par. 6). The blindness, John is speaking about, is spiritual blindness. The grace of God can open the eyes of the spiritually blind. The song brings a different way of solving our problems. The theme of the song states that when there are many difficulties in life, the solution is to kneel in front of God for answers.
It encourages believers of the existence of life after death. John says, that when this flesh and heart shall fail and the mortal life stops, he shall possess “a mortal life full of joy and peace” (Steel 29). It is a unifying factor that brings together religions and the concepts of freedom in a free society after death. The song is used in many occasions like funerals to give hope to the bereaved that there is a life after death.
Works Cited
Aitken, Jonathan. John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Books Press, 2007. Print.
Shmoop Editorial Team. Amazing Grace Meaning. Shmoop University, 2012. Web.
Steel, Danielle. Amazing Grace. New York, NY: Delacorte Press, 2007. Print.