Amazing Grace

“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.”
John Newton (1725-1807)

Every night in my home I have the job (it’s a privilege really) of putting our two and a half year old son, Gabe, to bed. And every night as he lays there in his bed he asks me, in his “baby-talk” English, to sing the song Amazing Grace to him. Well, last night, like every night, I sang this song to him, except last night as I sang the words I began to really think about grace.

Christian’s speak a lot about grace, and over the years I have lost count at the amount of times I have been asked, what is grace? The simple answer is that grace is unmerited favor. It is not something that one can earn; it is the free gift of God, something that we will never fully understand, and something that we most definitely don’t deserve.

The Bible clearly states that as believers we have been fully justified by Gods grace alone (Titus 3:7) and that we cannot work to earn this gift (Ephesians 2:8-9). However, it is in our nature as humans to try to work for and earn the things that we want, and many of us, including Christians, work to try and earn God’s favor and mercy.

Scripture shows us many examples of people who try to find value, meaning, freedom, and life apart from God; Adam and Eve through knowledge, King Saul through power, King David through a woman, Judas through money, and the list goes on. None of these, or anyone else for that matter, has ever found true value, meaning, or life, through his or her own self-effort.

Jesus said ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.’ (John 14:6) Only he can give our lives true meaning and value, and this is only made possible through the grace he freely offers us.

It is hard to accept that even though we didn’t deserve it, God would come and offer us His life to set us free. But that’s what he did. And furthermore, He is willing to help us in our everyday lives, even in the small things, if we would simply allow him to.

Many people needlessly struggle with shame and guilt which may be the result of abuse, sin, neglect, and so on, but instead of going to the One who has the power to help and set them free, they struggle on, trying to solve their own problems. They begin by telling themselves that they can find freedom through their own efforts, yet more often than not, this leads to even more shame and guilt as many times they fail to make any lasting changes.

However, God has made a way through Christ by which we can be free to live a life of value and meaning, through the grace found only in His Son Jesus Christ. In Matthew 11:28 Jesus even said that we can find complete rest in Him; rest from all the things that seek to bind us, so that he can begin a renewing and healing process in us, through His grace.

Update: I thought I’d share a funny little incident that happened on the day I uploaded this Faithblog. That evening I was out preaching at a local rehab center and so my son, Gabe, asked my wife to sing Amazing Grace to him. Well, she got to the line that says, “…that saved as wretch like me,” at which point he interrupted her and said knowingly, “No, like daddy!”

Christian St John M.Div, BChM, ACS
November, 2008

Picture by Charlie Balch