“Amazing Grace” is America’s favorite hymn. It was written by converted slave trader, John Newton in 1772. Everyone knows the words,
“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.”
For Newton, those words were burned into his heart for he had participated in the cruel and dehumanizing enslavement of African men, women, and children. Transformed by his newfound faith in Christ, he realized the full horror of what he had done and never got over it. However, when the hymn is sung at public events today, most people do not think about the true meaning of the words, for taken at their literal meaning, they are offensive to human pride. Many will think, “I am not a wretch. I’m not that bad. I don’t feel lost. What do I need to be saved from?”
There are different aspects to the concept of being lost in Christian thought. Being lost involves the following realities:
None of us know ourselves completely. We are all blind to some of our faults, we neglect to do things we should do, and do some things we shouldn’t. But beyond that, we each have a dark side that we are not aware of most of the time. But, when it is triggered by some event in our lives and comes into our consciousness, most of us try to suppress it, rationalize it, or ignore that wretched side of our nature. Our dark sides can be manifested in the form of rage, anger, hatred, selfishness, lust, and so on.
The Apostle Paul expressed this idea in the words,
“. . . For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Underlying Paul’s statement is the concept of the holiness of God. In our present state, we cannot come into God’s presence on our own terms. In Scripture, the experience of God’s presence is overwhelming and even frightening.
The Old Testament prophet, Isaiah recounts his vision of God in the Temple at Jerusalem with the words,
"Woe is me!". "For I am lost! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." (Is 6:5)
In spite of his suffering, Job also reacts with utter humility when God appears to him stating,
"My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes."
We fail to center our lives on God, our creator Who is the proper integration point for our lives. In fact, we humans in our natural, default orientation, suppress our innate awareness of God’s presence in the natural world. Scripture asserts the truth that the natural world exhibits the power and presence of God. This idea is expressed poetically in Psalm 8 of the Old Testament (Hebrew Scriptures):
“O Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is your name in all the earth!
When I look at your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which
you have set in place,
what is man the you are
mindful of him,
and the son of man that you
care for him?” (vs 1, 3-4)
In his letter to the Christians at Rome, the Apostle Paul emphasizes this idea by stating,
“For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Romans 1:19 – 21)
We suppress the truth of God’s reality and presence to assert our own autonomy. (See I Did It My Way.) Originally, God created humankind to be in relationship with Himself, but in some way that is obscured in the mists of pre-history and portrayed symbolically in the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, our distant ancestors chose to assert their own autonomy and thereby severed the special relationship God had intended to have with us. In some mysterious sense that we cannot understand, and that frankly offends our modern sense of individualism, God regards humanity as a spiritual and organic unity, so that the entire human race has inherited this inclination to autonomy resulting in alienation from God the Creator. Christ came into the world to rescue us from our alienation, sin, and the curse of spiritual death that results from life apart from God.
The Christian faith is unique because it is based on God’s initiative towards us rather than on a list of requirements or a moral code to be satisfied in order to achieve communion with God. God is seeking us by providing the way to enter a relationship with Himself. Because we cannot cross the chasm that exists between us and God, God came to us in Jesus Christ as Israel’s expected Messiah to provide a way of reconciliation than enables us to come into a relationship with God. Christ experienced the full outcome of alienation from God in our place. Isaiah describes Christ’s crucifixion in his prophecy of the Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53):
"Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—everyone—to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6)
Coming to faith involves a transition from a position of alienation from God to reconciliation and peace with God (Romans 5:1). Conversion (a change in direction) requires (1) acknowledging our alienation from God and our failure to live in harmony with God’s will and purpose and (2) placing our faith and trust in Christ’s death on the cross and his resurrection as the power or means to reconciliation with God.
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)
You can make this transition by simply addressing God in a prayer that states these two points. (Prayer is simply talking to God as you would talk to another person. You can be honest with God about your doubts as long as you are willing to be open and trust what Christ has done to reconcile you to God.)
To put your faith in Christ is to experience and to know the meaning of “amazing grace”. As Paul states in his letter to the Christians at Ephesus:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Eph 2:8)