Who was John Newton?

“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.”

Isaiah 44:22 (KJV) “ I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.”

Ephesians 1:7 (KJV) “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.”

Galatians 2:20 (KJV) “ I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

John Newton was born in Wapping, London, in 1725. He was the son of John Newton Sr. and Elizabeth Newton. John Newton, Sr. was a shipmaster in the Mediterranean service. Elizabeth was a Nonconformist. She died of tuberculosis in July 1732, two weeks before John Newton’s seventh birthday. John Newton then spent two years in a boarding school before living with his father and his new wife at Aveley in Essex.

At eleven, John Newton went to sea with his father. He was known to be obscene and foul-mouth. Newton sailed six voyages with his father before his father retired in 1742. In 1743, John Newton was pressured into joining the Royal Navy. He became a midshipman aboard HMS Harwich. Newton tried to desert unsuccessfully. His punishment in front of 350 crew members was being stripped to the waist, tied to the grating, and flogged eight times. Newton was then reduced to the rank of an ordinary seaman.

John Newton had been disgraced and humiliated. He had contemplated murdering the ship’s captain, then committing suicide by jumping overboard. God had plans for John Newton’s life later, however. He recovered both physically and mentally. Newton then transferred from the Harwich to the Pegasus, a slave ship en route to West Africa.

Newton did not get along with the crew on the Pegasus. In 1745, the Pegasus left him in West Africa with a slave dealer, Amos Clowe. Clowe then gave Newton to his wife, Princess Peye. She was African royalty and treated Newton harshly, like her other slaves. Princes Peye mistreated and abused Newton to the definition of a “Wretch” he later used in the lyrics of his renowned and influential hymn “Amazing Grace.”

Then in 1748, another ship was sent by John Newton’s father to search for his son. John Newton was found and rescued. John Newton went on to become the captain of a slave ship. On Newton’s slave ship, the enslaved people were inhumanly abused and mistreated.

On a return trip to England, Newton’s slave ship encountered a violent storm and almost capsized. The crew member who replaced Newton on deck drowned in the sea. This event prompted John Newton to pray, and by the Grace of God, the ship’s cargo shifted and filled the hole in the ship.

Newton captained his ship through the rest of the storm. He later commented that throughout the event, he then realized that it was not by his strength but by the Grace of God, his ship was saved. Surviving this storm was John Newton’s first step in becoming a Christian. In the second stanza of his hymn, “Amazing Grace,” “the hour I first believed,” this storm brought Newton’s attention to God’s grace. The seeds of Christianity were being sown; however, John Newton still did not fully convert to Christianity. He continued as a slave ship captain participating in the slave trade.

In 1750, John Newton married his longtime sweetheart, Mary. In 1753 Newton had a stroke that prevented him from returning to sea. John Newton then studied theology and was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1764. Newton then fought against the slave trade he once had participated in.

Throughout his ministry, John Newton composed 280 hymns. “Amazing Grace” was written in 1772. It first appeared in the Olney Hymns and was set to the famous tune “New Britain” in 1835 by William Walker.

John Newton passed away on Dec. 21, 1807.

“Amazing Grace” means that redemption and forgiveness are possible regardless of offenses committed. As with John Newton, it is never too late to repent and accept God’s forgiveness:

Luke 23:39-43 (KJV) “And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.”