Jesus Creed

Jesus Creed

Worthy of Imitation 6

posted by Scot McKnight | 12:06am Friday September 18, 2009

Newton.jpgJohn Newton, author of the Christian hymn is one of Chris Armstrong’s “patron saints for postmoderns” (Patron Saints for Postmoderns: Ten from the Past Who Speak to Our Future), and while one could trot any number of reasons to emulate John Newton, Armstrong focuses on his peace-making or grace-spreading life.

Grace came to Newton in the form of godly parents and solid connections, but he spurned them all — a sailor with a reputation for sin, a cursing man who blasphemed his God, and a man whose practices were anything but moral. And then, on a sea trip, on the verge of death in a storm, he realized his sin and, over time, his life was completely transformed by grace.

And his mission was to spread that grace. He was a Calvinist, he admitted just before taking a parish in London, but I take my Calvinism the way I take my sugar in tea — not straight and mixed. He formed the Eclectic Society, designed to get pastors to talk to one another about theology and Bible and life. His gracious spreading of tolerance made it famous.
He spread grace to children by forming special societies for them. He taught them hymns. And he spread grace by composing hymns, not the least of which was his famous Amazing Grace.
Armstrong tells Newton’s story with such clarity and grace that I have to say it’s the best summary I’ve seen of Newton’s life. Better than some biographies.
Perhaps Newton’s most famous way of spreading grace was by publishing his famous story of conversion: The Life & Spirituality of John Newton: An Authentic Narrative (Sources of Evangelical Spirituality)
. This narrative of conversion was a major encouragement to evangelicals in England, it shaped the conversions of others, and can be said to be a formative narrative for the evangelical conversion experience.
Newton, a saint of grace.


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Mark Baker-Wright

posted September 18, 2009 at 9:31 am


I assume that the words “Amazing Grace” were intended to go after words “Christian hymn,” since I’m guessing that Newton didn’t invent the genre!
For the briefest of moments, I thought you might be talking about one of my professors from Montreat-Anderson College (as it was still called at the time), a descendant of the hymn writer also named John Newton.



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