CW 576 Amazing Grace
Amazing Grace easily makes the short list of most popular hymns ever. In fact, it may be right at the top of the list. Search your favorite music app and you will find countless musical artists that sing or play their own rendition of the hymn. It is a hymn that is sung regularly in worship services and at funerals.
Why is it so popular? The author of the hymn, John Newton, makes the subject of God’s grace so easily relatable. Newton was able to make grace relatable because he witnessed God’s grace in his own life firsthand. The following epitaph on his tombstone sums it up: “John Newton, clerk, once an Infidel and Libertine, a servant of slavers in Africa, was, by the rich Mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the Faith he had long labored to destroy.” Let’s take a few minutes to meditate on God’s amazing grace.
Stanza 1: 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.
The Gospel lesson for this coming Sunday (March 30) is the parable of the Lost Son. Jesus tells a story of a son who asked his father for an early inheritance. Receiving it, the son promptly wastes the entire inheritance on wild living and becomes penniless. Being desperate, the son decides to go home and ask if he can live as a servant since he certainly doesn’t deserve to be a member of the family any longer. That’s where the grace side of the account kicks in. The father is overjoyed to see his son and welcomes him back with open arms into the family. The father lavishes him with gifts and a great feast.
Can you relate? When sin and guilt hound your conscience, can you relate to the lost son’s confession? “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” But then comes the Father’s response: “Quick…let us eat and celebrate, because this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.” How sweet the sound of God’s amazing grace! The Father is quick to forgive us because of Jesus.
Stanza 2: The Lord has promised good to me, his Word my hope secures; he will my shield and portion be as long as life endures.
Once the celebration for the lost son was over, we aren’t told what happens next. But the point of the parable is that the lost son was now back in his father’s family to stay. Whatever life threw at him, he knew he had the love and support of his father.
As members of God’s family, we can be confident in God’s goodness. Does that mean we will be wealthy? Does that mean that we will never experience pain or loss? Does that mean things will be easy for us? Of course not. But God promises that he will guard our souls. That he will give us everything we need for the difficult times in life. He guarantees it with his Word and God is always true to his Word.
Stanza 3: Through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come; ’tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.
Parents promise to protect their children; husbands promise to protect their wives. People make promises to us. They mean well, but sometimes they may make promises that are impossible to keep.
How long will our heavenly Father’s protection last? How long will he ‘lead us not into temptation’? How long will he ‘deliver us from evil’? God, in his grace, promises to be with us to the end of the age when we are led to our heavenly home. And our heavenly Father whose ‘grace has brought me safe thus far,’ can indeed deliver on his promise to keep us safe in his care to the end.
Stanza 4: When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’d first begun.
After squandering his father’s inheritance, can you imagine how relieved the lost son must have been to be back in his father’s household?! It is wonderful to be a part of a family. As wonderful as it is, we also know that it isn’t without its challenges. Also, our time in an earthly family is limited to time.
Contrast that with what the hymnwriter is talking about. At the end of stanza 3, he talks about grace leading me home. He’s talking about our real home. The home that we have with Jesus. Heaven is our home. And this stanza captures how long heaven lasts. When we’ve been there ten thousand years in perfection with Jesus, it will be as if time stands still. There will be no need to even mark time any longer. That’s because there will be no ending to the joy we will experience with our heavenly Father and his entire family of believers. And it is all because of God’s amazing grace. How sweet it is!