I just watched and listened to an awesome video on YouTube of people singing Amazing Grace on a street car. Every time I hear the song Amazing Grace, it brings tears to my eyes as I think of how unworthy I am of His love and yet how AMAZING God’s grace is toward us who simply believe in Him.
Read what Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:4-10 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
It is ONLY because of God’s grace and mercy that we are not doomed to eternal hell, and that we can enjoy such peace and joy even when this world around us is wrapped in wickedness and sin.
I think how John Newton, the writer of the hymn Amazing Grace, must have felt when he realized for the first time the truth behind God’s grace toward us. Newton was a very wicked man before he placed his faith in Jesus Christ in the late 1700’s, and he writes in the verse of the song, “Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a WRETCH like me…” Some people like to emphasize Newton’s activities as a slave trader and his wicked lifestyle as if to try and make him seem more “wicked” than themselves. However, in the eyes of God, ALL ungodly actions and sins are the same. The Bible reminds us in Romans 3:23; “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.
NONE of us are worthy of God’s amazing grace. As Paul wrote in Ephesians “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God…” What an AWESOME and WONDERFUL gift – God’s grace.
And as partakers of God’s grace, we should rush with DELIGHT to follow Him and obey His commandments, and do what is pleasing in His sight! I wonder as people all over the world know the words to the hymn, but do they know the truth of God’s grace? Have they ever really experienced it in their own lives? I know without GOD’s Amazing Grace, I wouldn’t be here – and I am eternally indebted to Him. To love HIM and seek after Him with ALL of my heart is the LEAST I can do in response to what He has done for me.
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
Do you know Him and His Amazing Grace? If it hasn’t changed your life – there’s something wrong!