Vineyard Church | Weekly Update January 24, 2024

“Whatever it be that makes us trust in ourselves that we are comparatively wise or good, so as to treat those with contempt who do not subscribe to our doctrines, or follow our party, is a proof and fruit of a self-righteous spirit.”

That quote resonates with me because the man that gave it is one of the most self-aware followers of Jesus I have learned of. John Newton once described himself as arrogant, rebellious, and recklessly sinful. He said, “I sinned with a high hand, and I made it my study to tempt and seduce others.”

Newton lived as close to a pirate’s life as a man could get without really being one, living aboard a Royal Navy ship that his father commanded, then serving in the navy himself before he got a job on The Greyhound, a notorious slave trading vessel based out of Liverpool. On this ship, he would begin to read the Bible, as well as a book entitled The Imitation of Christ….

On March 21, 1748, The Greyhound was caught in a severe north Atlantic storm. Laden with slaves, the ship was in danger of capsizing. Slaves and crewmen alike were washed over the rail by the stormy sea, while Newton bailed water out of the ship. In this moment, he began to pray, a moment he would later say was the hour he first believed. 

After this, Newton went through a cycle of turning to God and sliding back into his old sinful ways. He served as captain of two different slave ships during the next several years, an experience that brought him to the point of hating slavery and shame at his involvement. Hundreds of Africans were enslaved due to his work.

In 1755, he left the sea and started going to church.… He heard the words of George Whitefield and John Wesley and, at age 39, was ordained as a pastor. He began to work though his past and found that writing hymns allowed a way to express what he believed.

After a life of reckless sinfulness, John Newton found Jesus. After seeing the evil of slavery and being responsible for the trading of God’s image bearers, he surrendered to God and he captured this journey in a hymn, Faith’s Review and Expectation, which we know now as Amazing Grace. 

The point of this rambling and the John Newton quote that will bring us back to the quote at the beginning of this rambling is this: “This is faith: a renouncing of everything we are apt to call our own and relying wholly upon the blood, righteousness, and intercession of Jesus.”

John Newton understood and has effectively communicated something that many miss when it comes to living for Jesus. First, the change that occurs is complete. This is communicated through the change in the life of John Newton, from slave-trading sinner to saved pastor and hymn writer that used the description of his experience to connect with generations of Christians. We give up everything that can be called our own. This effectively eliminates the ability for fear to enter our lives. 

Living for Jesus creates little for us to be threatened by, but living for self allows fear to reign because so many things can become threats. In the same way that fear is a fruit of living for something other than Jesus, Newton correctly points out that contempt for others demonstrates self-righteousness that is incompatible with the Gospel of Jesus. 

A.W. Tozer compared contempt for others with the sin of idolatry. He reasoned that if idolatry is disrespect for God Himself, then contempt is disrespect for the being he made in His own image. What I appreciate about John Newton is that he was so aware of his own path to Jesus that he had compassion on others as they traversed their own path to the Savior. He gave them and gives us grace because he knows no one is beyond saving and no story is finished until the author of life decrees it so. 

In short, being aware of his own story of reconciliation with God allowed John Newton to give room for others that were experiencing their own path to redemption. Rather than being fearful of sinners or holding them in contempt, he worked to use his story as a reflection of the love of God. Becoming aware of the depths from which we have been saved and seeing the depths of separation from God that others are experiencing, we can become tools of reconciliation when we embrace compassionate rescue and reject fear and contempt.

Adam Greenwell
Pastor  |  Billings Vineyard Church
www.BillingsVineyard.org