Amazing Grace

One cannot consider the great hymns of our faith without thinking of perhaps the most well-known hymn of all. Throughout the years, it has been re-recorded, reimagined, and arranged in countless styles. New verses have been added, and chord progressions modernized, yet none have surpassed the timeless beauty and enduring message of the original.

This week's hymn is none other than Amazing Grace, a timeless reminder of the hope we have through God's saving grace.

Background:

The hymn was written by John Newton (1725–1807). Newton was born in London to a sea captain and a godly Christian mother. Although she died when he was only seven years old, her influence remained with him throughout his life. As Robert J. Morgan observes, "It's hard to shake off a mother's influence." He notes that at her knee, Newton "memorized Bible passages and hymns," and that years later Newton still remembered her tearful prayers for his soul.¹

After his mother's death, Newton drifted far from the faith. At seventeen, he was pressed into service in the Royal Navy. After attempting to desert, he was captured, publicly flogged, and eventually transferred to a slave-trading vessel, where he sank even deeper into sin. Aboard the slave ship, he abandoned nearly all moral restraint, becoming so depraved that even hardened sailors considered him among the worst of men.² Reflecting on those years, Newton later admitted, "I was capable of anything."³

Everything changed during a violent storm in the North Atlantic on March 10, 1748. Believing the ship was about to sink, Newton cried out to God for mercy. He never forgot that night, later writing, "That tenth of March is a day much remembered by me; and I have never suffered it to pass unnoticed since the year 1748... the Lord came from on high and delivered me out of deep waters."⁴

Although Newton's spiritual growth was gradual, God continued His work in his life. He eventually left the slave trade, studied for the ministry, and became a pastor of an Anglican church in Olney, England. Robert Morgan describes him as becoming "one of the most powerful evangelical preachers in British history" and as the author of hundreds of hymns.⁵ Later in life, Newton publicly denounced the slave trade and joined William Wilberforce and other abolitionists in seeking its end.

Newton wrote the words to "Amazing Grace" to accompany his New Year's Day sermon on January 1, 1773, based on 1 Chronicles 17:16–17, where King David humbly marvels at God's undeserved favor: "Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?"

Newton's original title was not "Amazing Grace" but "Faith's Review and Expectation." It was published in 1779 in Olney Hymns, a collection compiled by John Newton and William Cowper. Like the other hymns in the collection, it appeared only as a poem, without a specific musical tune.⁶

The tune as used today, known as NEW BRITAIN (see below), first appeared in Virginia Harmony (1831) and was paired with Newton's text by William Walker in Southern Harmony (1835).⁸ This union of text and tune helped make "Amazing Grace" one of the best-known and most beloved hymns in the English-speaking world.

Many people assume the well-known stanza beginning, "When we've been there ten thousand years..." was written by Newton. It was not. That verse was added many years later from another source and was never part of Newton's original hymn. Newton's original hymn consisted of the following six stanzas.⁹

John Newton's Original Six Stanzas:

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 appear, the 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.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail, and mortal life shall cease, I shall possess, within the veil, a life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow, the sun forbear to shine; But God, who called me here below, will be forever mine.

Footnotes

¹ Robert J. Morgan, Then Sings My Soul: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 26.

² "Today in Christian History: Daily Stories," Christian History Institute, accessed July 16, 2026, https://christianhistoryinstitute.org.

³ Morgan, Then Sings My Soul, 26.

⁴ John Newton, quoted in Tony Reinke, Newton on the Christian Life: To Live Is Christ, ed. Stephen J. Nichols and Justin Taylor, Theologians on the Christian Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015), 39.

⁵ Morgan, Then Sings My Soul, 27.

⁶ Morgan, Then Sings My Soul, 27.

⁷ John Newton and William Cowper, Olney Hymns (London: W. Oliver, 1779), Preface.

⁸ William Walker, Southern Harmony (New Haven, CT: Nathan Whiting, 1835).

⁹ John Newton, "Faith's Review and Expectation," in Olney Hymns (London: W. Oliver, 1779), Book I, Hymn XLI.