Preserved, Restored, Pardoned..."
In the book of Deuteronomy we read,
"Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondsman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee." Deuteronomy 15:15.
I believe it's at St. Mary Woolnoth an Anglican church in the City of London, that there is a plaque with the words,
"John Newton, clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long laboured to destroy."
Newton was a slave trader who helped himself to the female slaves. He was a deserter, flogged by the British Navy, who was reduced to being the slave of a sadistic woman, herself a slave, in Africa.
He came to Christ on March 10, 1748 while steering a near foundering ship in a storm.
Newton would go on to be the curate at a church in Olney, Buckinghamshire. Along with William Cowper write the Olney Hymns (1779) Two hundred eighty of which he wrote including the hymn Amazing grace.
In 1787 he with William Wilberforce founded the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Speaking out against the evil that was the slave trade. Even writing a book Thoughts Upon the African Slave Trade. He would testify against slavery to parliament. Living long enough to see slavery abolished.
It would be easy for us in the twenty-first century to say “well I’m not a bad as Newton” and that might be so. But the apostle Paul wrote,
"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," Romans 3:23.
Little sins or big sins or anything in between separates us from God. Sin is falling short of God’s ideal for our life. The apostle John stating.
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives." 1John 1:9-10.
Do you believe that you are a sinner falling short of God’s ideal. Do you believe the words of Jesus who said,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son”. John 3:16-18.
Can you say as John Newton said,
“...by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned...”
Please think about it.
