This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, 

that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief.

I Timothy 1:15, NKJV

John Newton was born in 1725. His father was a seafaring man who remarried after his first wife died when John was only six. John's stepmother was not a very warm person, and he was sent to boarding school where he quickly learned the ways of the world. His father brought him aboard ship to serve as an apprentice and rehabilitate the young profligate when John was only eleven, but the attempt at rehabilitation did not take. He became more and more rebellious until finally, he was pressed into the British Royal Navy as a last-ditch effort.

John fell in love with a daughter of family friends and deserted to be with her. He was caught, punished, and traded to serve as crew aboard a slave ship. The captain of that slave ship once commented that even among men of profanity, he was the most profane man he had ever met. John would even invent profanity-laced poems with which to tease the captain - a relatively poor idea when one considers the era in which he lived, a time in which the captain was the absolute master while at sea John Newton was in and out of the ship's brig and was finally sold as a slave in Sierra Leone. 

His father once again came to the rescue and John Newton soon found himself a crew member of another slave ship. He had long since denied any faith in God, so the trafficking of human beings meant nothing to him even after having served as a slave himself. It wasn't until a particularly violent storm in which he gave up all hope that he proclaimed to the captain that the Lord Himself would have to save them if they were to have any hope. Two weeks later, battered and nearly starved to death, the ship finally reached port. John Newton began a fresh appraisal of his life to that point and didn't much like what he observed.

He then did two of the first smart things he had ever done in his life: He began a search for God, and requested permission of the parents of the woman with whom he had fallen in love with those many years ago if he might begin to write her. The parents reluctantly agreed and the two eventually married. John soon became captain of his own slave ship but began to have second thoughts as to the morality of the slave trade. He acquired a position as captain of a non-slave ship but had to quit before he took on this role because of poor health.

It was at this point that he truly began to act upon his slow conversion. He studied Latin, Greek and Theology. He applied for a position with the Church of England but was initially turned down for rather obvious reasons. Still, he persisted to the point that he was finally accepted and began to preach. He was so able to relate to the plight of the common man that his congregation soon overflowed. People literally flocked to hear this "clergyman" who had the unusual gift of speaking to them of things that actually helped them in their own personal struggles.

John Newton eventually became a champion of the abolitionist movement, a final act of penance from a life that had formerly been steeped in so much sin. In 1792 he wrote a poem that was to be used in the New Year's worship service. It's first line went something like this:  

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.

It is through true life stories of men like John Newton that we can begin to see the patience that God has with His beloved creation. While we likely haven't been as depraved as John Newton, it is quite likely that we can all see the need for the saving grace that God extended to Mr. Newton in our own lives. We have all made mistakes - some of them nearly as vile and sinful as those we read about in the life of John Newton. Perhaps we have even come to the depths of despair that he reached, knowing that our own sins have placed us in a position of being far away from the only One who can truly rescue.

Isn't it comforting to know that the same grace that rescued John Newton is available to us today? I wonder what we could accomplish, if only we would take hold of that wonderful second chance that God's amazing grace affords to all of His beloved children.