A Wretch Like Who?

I’ve been reading the book “The Grace and Truth Paradox” by Randy Alcorn and he tells a story in the book about a time he was listening to a soloist singing one of his favorite songs “Amazing Grace.” He said, “It was beautiful until she got to the tenth word.” “Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a soul like me!” His heart sank. The word wretch had been edited out. John Newton, the songwriter knew he was a wretch and that’s what made God’s grace so amazing, mind boggling, and pretty much awesome.

“If we’re nothing more then morally neutral souls, do you see what that does? It guts grace. The better we are, the less we need it. The less amazing it becomes. The Bible makes an astounding proclamation: ‘God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us' (Romans 5:8)"

“When you cut wretch out of the song, you shrink grace. You reduce it to something more sensible, less surprising. If we weren’t so bad without Christ, why did He have to endure the cross? Paul said if men were good enough, then ‘Christ died for nothing’ (Galatians 2:21) Grace never ignores the awful truth of our depravity. In fact, it emphasizes it. The worse we realize we are, the greater we realize how great God’s grace is.”

What relief this has brought me to realize that my salvation cannot be earned by good works and therefore can’t be lost by bad ones. Through that story I realized that if I see God as who He really is and myself as whom I really am there’s only one appropriate response, and that is to worship Him. What a wretched sinner I am but, by God’s amazing grace I am now free!!!

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.

-Candace-