ChosenRebel's Blog

Thursday is for Discipleship

I picked up the following excerpt from John Newton’s autobiography (An Authentic Narrative) over at Stand to Reason Blog.  Newton, for those who don’t know, was the slave trader / ships captain turned Christian convert, pastor, and hymn writer who wrote the most famous hymn of all time, Amazing Grace. I heard the hymn no less than three times during the morning remembrance of 9/11 last Sunday. My first three thoughts upon reading it (the post):

1. How marvelous is our God to work all things together for our good.
2. How thin is the theological reflection of our age. There is hardly anything to compare with the thoughts of Newton in this brief paragraph in our generation. (With a few, very few, notable exceptions.)
3. What must I change in my schedule and habits to deepen my thinking on the things of God? 

Here’s the excerpt just as it appeared in Stand to Reason:

From John Newton’s spiritual autobiography, An Authentic Narrative:

How many such casual events may we remark in the history of Joseph, which had each a necessary influence in his ensuing promotion! If he had not dreamed, or if he had not told his dream; if the Midianites had passed by a day sooner or a day later; if they had sold him to any person but Potiphar; if his mistress had been a better woman; if Pharaoh’s officers had not displeased their lord; or if any, or all these things had fallen out in any other manner or time than they did, all that followed [would have] been prevented: the promises and purposes of God concerning Israel, their bondage, deliverances, polity, and settlement, must have failed; and, as all these things tended to, and centred in Christ, the promised Saviour, the desire of all nations would not have appeared; mankind had been still in their sins, without hope, and the counsels of God’s eternal love in favour of sinners defeated. Thus we may see a connection between Joseph’s first dream and the death of our Lord Christ, with all its glorious consequences. So strong, though secret, is the concatenation between the greatest and the smallest events. What a comfortable thought is this to a believer to know, that amidst all the various interfering designs of men, the Lord has one constant design which he cannot, will not miss, namely, his own glory in the complete salvation of his people; and that he is wise, and strong, and faithful, to make even those things, which seem contrary to this design, subservient to promote it.

I can only respond with the words of Romans 11:33 and Psalm 139:6: Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! It is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it.

Final Thought: Would you pray for me, that I would rally my soul, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to seek more passionately after holiness and the grace and knowledge of Christ.