John Newton wrote arguably one of the most famous hymns in modern history that told the story of his life. 1 Chronicles 17:16 was the verse that inspired him to write Faith's Review And Expectation. The verse reads, "And David the king came and sat before the LORD, and said, Who am I, O LORD God, and what is mine house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?" The verse of the song that reflects the 1 Chronicles passage reads this way - "Thro' many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come; 'Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home."

Newton composed a song originally known as Faith's Review and Expectation, which we know today as Amazing Grace—how sweet the sound, that sav'd a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see!" To be sure, the song is Amazing Grace, perhaps the most beloved song of all times. The original title was Faith's Review.

But who is the self-proclaimed "wretch" who wrote the song? John Newton was born in London, England on July 24, 1725, the son of a commander of a merchant ship which sailed the Mediterranean. In July 1732, thirteen days before his seventh birthday, death overcame his saintly mother who had since his third birthday been his teacher and mentor. He took the death of his mother hard and with much grief. He found no consolation from his father. Newton wrote of him, "I am persuaded that he loved me, but he seemed not willing that I should know it. I was with him in a state of fear and bondage. His sternness broke my spirit." John became quite bitter at God over his circumstance because he began as one author puts it, "a decline into rebellion and degradation that lasted until his twenty-fourth year." At eleven years of age he went to sea with his father and made six voyages with him before the elder Newton retired. In 1744, John was pressed into service on a man-of-war, the H.M.S. Harwich. The conditions on board were inhospitable and intolerable to him, so he deserted but was soon recaptured and publicly flogged and demoted from midshipman to seaman. Newton was exchanged into service on a slave trader that departed for Sierra Leone. He then became the servant of a slave trader and was brutally abused. Early in 1748 he was rescued by a sea captain who had known John's father. The slaves would often smuggle him food, and for him. He bore witness to the horrors and misery of the slave trade for the Africans in bondage. That experience represented a profound reflection of man's innate inhumanity and cruelty. It drove him to examine his own sinfulness. Amidst much soul-searching, he cried out to God, reflecting upon the teachings of his pious mother. It was several year later, however, he professed to be a true believer.

‘The crook in the lot’, says Boston, ‘is the great engine of providence for making men appear in their true colors’. C.S. Lewis referred to sufferings as ‘blockades on the road to hell’. The same sun that melts the ice also hardens the clay. Andrew Fuller declares, ‘Afflictions refine some, they consume others’. The test of a person’s Christianity is what happens in the storm, when the house is battered in the winds of affliction. The Apostle Paul told Timothy he must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Adversity refined John Newton, and made him into a humble saint. He knew he was a great sinner, and he needed a great savior. For John Newton, in 1764, he became a radical minister and an even greater songwriter. And God gets the glory in using the weak instruments like him. He was instrumental in encouraging his friend William Wilberforce, a parliamentarian who led the charge for the abolition of slavery. He is best remembered for his hymn Amazing Grace.

"I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what I hope to be. Yet I can truly say, I am not what I once was."
—John Newton