The story behind the hymn
John Newton went to sea at eleven, was press-ganged into the navy, flogged for desertion, and ended up captaining slave ships — a trade he later called a business at which my heart now shudders. On 21 March 1748, aboard a ship breaking apart in an Atlantic storm, he cried to God for mercy. He marked that anniversary in prayer for the rest of his life.
Newton left the sea, taught himself Hebrew and Greek, and became the curate of Olney, a small lace-making town in Buckinghamshire. With his friend the poet William Cowper he wrote a hymn for most weeks' prayer meetings; Amazing Grace was written for New Year's Day 1773, to accompany a sermon on David's prayer in 1 Chronicles 17 — who am I, O LORD God?
The hymn is Newton's autobiography in five stanzas: lost and found, blind and seeing, dangers, toils and snares. In old age, nearly blind, he told visitors: my memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things: that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Saviour. His epitaph, self-written, says the rest — 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.
The lyrics
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.
'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,And grace my fears relieved;How precious did that grace appearThe hour I first believed!
Through many dangers, toils and snares,I have already come;'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,And grace will lead me home.
The Lord has promised good to me,His word my hope secures;He will my shield and portion be,As long as life endures.
When we've been there ten thousand years,Bright shining as the sun,We've no less days to sing God's praiseThan when we'd first begun.
Public domain. Free to sing, copy, print, and share.
The Scripture behind it
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Grace as gift, not wages — the hymn's whole theology in one verse.
He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.
The healed blind man's testimony — was blind, but now I see — borrowed for the first stanza's climax.
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 sermon text the hymn was written to accompany.