"Grace" in its truest sense, and in the sense used in Amazing Grace, is a uniquely Christian term. In fact, the first definition of Grace from the Merriam-Webster online dictionary reads as follows:
- a : unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctificationb : a virtue coming from Godc : a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine grace
God's grace is so "Amazing," because it takes the most evil, vile, wicked of people and turns them into saints - children of a holy, living God, who bring glory to Him through their lives. The author of Amazing Grace, John Newton, was a slave trader - someone who treated human beings as property - with brutal, murderous contempt - he was a kidnapper, torturer and murderer. In fact, the Bible says that "heartless, ruthless" people like John Newton deserve to die (Rom. 1:30-32). The Bible lists "enslavers" (kidnappers who sell their captives) as people who are under the judgment of God's law (1 Tim. 1:8-10).
As a heartless, ruthless enslaver of men, women and children, Newton knew that he deserved God's wrath and eternal punishment. In his own words, he was a "wretch" - his identity was in his wretchedness and evil conduct.
In that wretched identity, Newton first came to understand the Gospel - that God the Father loved him so much that He sent God the Son, Jesus, to live a perfect life, die a wretched sinner's death, and conquer the power of death through the resurrection. God did that in order to offer John Newton the righteousness of God in place of the judgment and condemnation that he deserved for his sin. John Newton confessed his sin, repented of his life of sin, and received the Amazing Grace that God offered. Here, it should be noted that Newton understood and accepted the grace of God with his mind several years before that grace transformed his heart and his lifestyle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Newton
Newton was forever changed by that Amazing Grace. This former slave trader wrote many hymns, including Amazing Grace, that made their way into the hymnals of African slaves in the United States. The same grace and same hope that saved him was embraced by the very Africans that he enslaved.
Thus it is that over 200 years after his death, a primarily African American church in Charleston, South Carolina, could not only sing Amazing Grace, but demonstrate that grace toward racist hatred after nine of its members, including its pastor, were gunned down by a racist. Emanuel AME church was built in 1816, nine years after Newton's death, during the height of slavery in the south. Thus, both slave trader and slave could equally celebrate and rejoice in God's Amazing Grace through the Gospel.
That Gospel is only known through the Bible. The same Bible that describes the Amazing Grace of the Gospel describes the institution of marriage as God's idea and God's plan. God says that the complimentarity, exclusivity and faithfulness of male-female marriage reflects the Gospel - it reflects Jesus' sacrificial, wholehearted commitment to us in order to qualify us to be children of God. This is described in Ephesians 5.
In Ephesians 5:3-7, Paul repeatedly tells us to avoid sexual immorality and to not allow anyone to deceive you with empty words, because the sexually immoral have no share in the kingdom of God - don't become partners with them. He then goes on in 5:22-33 to describe the parallel between the Gospel message and the husband-wife marriage relationship. In other words, the Amazing Grace of the Gospel is illustrated by God's design for marriage.
As used in the New Testament, "sexual immorality" always includes the sexual prohibitions of the Hebrew Scriptures - the Old Testament. When the Apostles were trying to understand how the Jewish law applied to Gentile believers, they came to the following Holy Spirit inspired and prayerful conclusion: that Gospel converts were to "abstain from the things offered to idols, and from sexual immorality, and from [eating] what has been strangled, and from [eating] blood." (Acts 15:19-20, 28-29.)
Consistent with Rom. 1:26, 1 Cor. 6:9-11 (all of ch. 6), 1 Tim. 1:10, 2 Pet. 2:6-8, and Jude 7, sexual immorality in the New Testament includes all manner of sexual conduct outside of a one-man, one-woman marriage, including homosexual conduct.
We are all born into sin as a result of the sin of Adam. Sin is essentially in our DNA - it corrupts us from the moment of birth. (See Romans 5:12-21.) Included in that propensity toward sin is all manner of sexual sin. We are all enslaved to it. It becomes our identity and is part of the sin that separates us from God and earns His just wrath. (Rom. 1:18.)
Thus, for all people of all kinds and all sins, the Gospel is such great news - the most Amazing Grace possible. Paul described himself as the "a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent," the "foremost" of sinners. (1 Tim. 1:13-15 - i.e., worse than the men who practice homosexuality, enslavers and others that he mentions in 1:10.) Yet, when the light of Christ flooded his heart, he understood the Amazing Grace offered him. He understood that: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death." (Rom. 8:1-2.) The Good News is so Amazing because the bad news was so bad.
So it is that Paul can truthfully tell the Corinthian church:
"... the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." (1 Cor. 6:9-11 ESV.)
In other words, the Amazing Grace of the Gospel has the power to transform us from one cultural and sexual identity into another identity. In a June 16, 2011 article in the NY Times, entitled, My Ex-Gay Friend, and written by a homosexual journalist, the story is told of a young man whose identity was fully consumed by his homosexuality - he was a homosexual evangelist/activist. Yet, the Amazing Grace of the Gospel transformed him and his homosexual identity died, to be replaced by a new identity as a saint in Jesus Christ. The author was shocked and dumbfounded by the transformation in his friend. There are many such stories, including the well published story of Rosaria Butterfield.
This is all consistent with the Amazing Grace of the Gospel. The Bible says that we are in fact a "new creation," so that the old self dies and a new Christ-like self begins to emerge through the work of the Holy Spirit in us:
"From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Cor. 5:16-21 ESV.)
Thus, the same Amazing Grace of the Gospel that transformed a racist slave trader who was headed for hell can and does transform the sexually immoral. There cannot be grace of the one kind and not the other. They go hand in hand. Any other gospel is not of the Amazing Grace variety, but has been culturally altered. Paul and Jesus both tell us not to accept any other Gospel. (Gal. 1:6-9; Rev. 22:18-19.)
See more on Amazing Grace and John Newton in this recent article: http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/27795
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