Wretched Saints - A 5 Day Journey To TruthSample

A Wretch Like me  

Before John could understand how loved he was, he had to understand what a wretch he was. If he had a false view of himself, and thought his life was completely put together, he never would have been able to accept the love of God … because deep down, he wouldn’t have believed he needed it.

John’s dad was a wealthy slave merchant in the early 1700’s. He made his fortune by repeating the same three journeys over and over. 

Between the ages of 11 and 17, John went on six of these journeys with his dad, and when the time came, he went into the family business and became the captain of his own ship. From his father, he had learned to be a harsh taskmaster that was both feared and hated by his men. 

In 1748, on one of these journeys, John stumbled onto a copy of Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis, and he began to read it along with a Bible.

This journey had quite an impact on young John, both intellectually and experientially. As they crossed the Atlantic Ocean, he and his crew hit a storm that threatened to tear the ship to pieces. John, fresh from his time contemplating his eternal soul, cried out to God to save them.

And God did.

This act of grace began to pick at the edges of John’s spirit as he continued to captain his slave ship for six more years. The lies he’d believed began to fall away. On the long journeys, John taught himself Latin and a smattering of Greek and Hebrew, and he began to pore over the Bible in the original languages. This study caused John to draw two deep conclusions: “I am a great sinner, and Christ is a great Saviour.”

Moved by this revelation and significant health problems, John gave up his lucrative career as a slave trader and decided to become a pastor. If there were beliefs in his head that he was good for nothing but to be a slaver, they dropped away. Also, for him, it was a penance of sorts because he was “haunted by the memory of his 20,000 African ghosts.”

John wasn’t, by most contemporary accounts, a very good preacher. But God had changed this man from being a harsh slave trader, who was hated by even his own crew, into a humble and passionate follower of Jesus, who fought tirelessly against the slave trade.

Fully aware of his own sin—and the depth of God’s forgiveness—John Newton wrote those famous words.

“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.”

I pray that, emboldened by the love of God towards a wretched saint like you and me, you will rip out that piece of junk sensor and inject a gob of grace into it's place. When your feelings and thoughts drift from the truth of God's Word, I pray that you would have the strength to reject the lie, believe the truth, and just live

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We hope you enjoyed the Wretched Saints reading plan. You can learn more about Noel Jesse Heikkinen and his new book Wretched Saints here .