Amazing Grace

It seems like it's almost the North American spiritual  anthem - even more so after the emotional earthquake of September 11, 2001. It's that centuries-old hymn, "Amazing Grace."

For years, they've played it at the funerals of fallen policemen and firemen - and of many everyday men and women. It's been the subject of a public television documentary. And on that emotional first anniversary of September 11 at Ground Zero, what song did the bagpipers play as they approached that site which has become hallowed ground? As Max Lucado a well known writer and speaker toured Ground Zero, ten days after that catastrophic event he said  “ I told myself…what, three thousand people are under there… the tragedy spoke a language I’d never studied.”

On that first anniversary, of course, they were playing the haunting strains of "Amazing Grace." Even for people who don't go to church or know much about the Bible or even believe much of anything, they know "Amazing Grace."

Many who love the song "Amazing Grace" have little idea what is so amazing about the grace that it celebrates; or even what "grace" really is. And yet we have a strange sense in our soul that what that song is about is something our soul really needs. And we're right. Once you dig in and try to grasp what God's "grace" is all about, you really will be amazed, and changed forever.

We read in John 1:14 that the Lord Jesus was “ full of grace and truth.” And in v 17 of the same chapter it says “ For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

John Newtown in his song Amazing Grace puts two words in the first verse that describes everyone as being saved or lost!  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.  Is it any wonder he could sing about grace, he has experienced? He called it the unforgettable day May 10, 1748 when he was saved by God’s grace.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book “ The Cost of Discipleship " says cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our souls. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ."

Cheap grace is evident in the lives of religious souls that can talk the talk, but not walk the walk.  They can live and act just like anybody else, and no one would ever dream their lives have been touched by the grace of God.

Mercy is God withholding from those that have trusted His son as Savior, that which they deserved, which is judgment because of their sin. Grace is God reaching out to us with that which none of us deserved, salvation through His Son and a home in heaven. Only grace can take us from guilt to acquittal! When God saves an individual it is forever.  God doesn’t put us on probation, he pardons the sinner.  Isaiah 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

Sane thinking has deserted man when it comes to his thoughts about God. Any church attender can pick up a religion about God, but only by His grace can we have a relationship with God!

Anyone who has been saved as a result of the grace of God, can never forget that unforgettable experience, when they realized their guilt before God. They also could understand in some measure, that it was the only way a holy God could reach out to them a sinful creature, was on the basis of grace!  And so sweetly they can sing “ Amazing Grace “

Murray A. McCandless     2070 Route 121, Norton, NB  E5T 1E9   mmccand@nbnet.nb.ca