Stanzas two and three appear to reflect on how grace worked on the writer’s heart: 

     ’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.

At the hour we first believed, the life of Jesus the Son makes us alive to God. Up to that point, we were dead or numb to God. This was discussed in the previous post on this hymn. So, now that the writer’s spirit is no longer deadened, there is a realization that He ought to fear. But fear what? Fear whom?

Leprosy (Hansen’s Disease) is one disease specifically mentioned in the Bible and we are familiar with it through photographs of the ravages of this disfiguring disease. Those affected by it often have missing fingers or toes, facial disfigurement, or some bodily contortion. This is not from a flesh-eating bacteria. Mycobacterium leprae is a bacteria that attacks the nerves and so result in a loss of sensation of the infected. Grossly, when the tissue loses the ability to sense heat or cold or a cut or a sprain, a simple injury can lead to a devastating result because the affected person isn’t aware that they have been hurt. Instead of attending to the injury, they can compound the injury carelessly. So, fingers can suffer 3rd and 4th degree burns without pain. For the affected person living in impoverished conditions, during the night, a small rodent may nibble away at a wounded site and the person doesn’t feel anything to fend off the offender and thus exacerbate the injury. So, the harm is done, but they are not particularly bothered by it. (For a full picture of leprosy and our spiritual condition, I recommend The Gift of Pain by Dr. Paul Brand and Philip Yancey)

So in the same way, we can live in opposition to God without much awareness of it. We lack fear or reverence for God. We who were created in God’s image allow harm to ourselves, see nothing wrong with it, and don’t seem to mind that it’s happening. Since we are not conscious of God, we think nothing of taking the name of God in vain, so cursing is easy, it rolls off the tongue with minimal effort. But the name of Jesus Christ is the name of God’s precious Son whom God sent to the world to save us from our sin. The Bible tells us that when we call on His precious name, we are wondrously saved. (I tested this and must tell you that it is true. “O Lord Jesus, I need You..”) How can we then take His name and make the greatest blessing into a lowly curse. When we misuse it so readily, we more easily dismiss it’s true power and preciousness.

How can anyone handle fellow human beings like property, or worse, bought and sold and treated contemptuously without feeling? Without feeling. Slavery still exists in the 21st century in the form of human trafficking. So, if we think that society has “evolved” over the last 200 years or so, think again. The kind of tearing down of fellow human beings on social media is a clear demonstration that callousness has not improved with time and social enlightenment. Whatever the vice, maybe at one time, there was some twinge of guilt or inward objections raised by a sensitive conscience, but over time, even that conscience can become seared, too numb to raise any objections at all. But just because we cannot feel danger, it doesn’t mean danger doesn’t exist. Just because we can’t sense God’s presence or notice His handiwork in the natural world surrounding us, it doesn’t mean He isn’t there.

So, for humanity, losing God-consciousness has been the greatest tragedy. The Bible reveals that rebellion to God has introduced the factor of Sin which rendered humanity dead or numb to God. Almighty God, who cannot be limited by time, space, and matter, has provided the antidote to our deadened spiritual condition in the person of the resurrected Jesus Christ, our only remedy. When at first we are awakened to God, we see our own state of wretchedness and our need for salvation. It is like the nerves being brought back to life and now we sense the pain from all the damage that has come from living callously. And at that moment of despair from our helplessness, Jesus provides the solution. The Bible says that we were redeemed by His precious blood. He comes not only to make us aware of our sinfulness, He comes to exchange His God-conscious life for our God-callous life.

Now, the commandments of God are not merely rules to live by, but the expression of the life of Jesus, (who forever lives in obedience to the eternal Father and His commands)being lived out in you and me. So grace led me to see my wretchedness, to fear for my sinfulness, to appreciate that God has a purpose for my being, and grace provide the solution to my fallen state of being in the person of the resurrected Jesus Christ. Now it becomes possible to live our life as God meant it to be lived. And as we navigate through this life, with all its temptations, and trials, and failures, and difficulties, the life of Jesus remains: He will not abandon us. He will see us through. Grace is taking us all the way to God’s end, when the transforming work of God is complete in us. John Newton was on a slave ship for many journeys, some as the captain even, but towards the end of his life, we can see the life of Jesus at work in him. He eventually wrote a pamphlet on the horrors of the slave trade and distributed the publication to the members of the British Parliament. He worked with William Wilberforce and others to abolish the slave trade in Great Britain. But God had to first work it out an exchange in his heart. In their hearts. In all our hearts. Until it’s all the Son’s heart.

Amazing grace.