John Newton

April 21

Adversity is the diamond dust heaven polishes its jewels with. Robert Leighton

Luster and brilliance are not the innate characteristics of jewels. In their natural state, the finest of gems appear dull and rough. They can easily be overlooked as they appear before they are transformed by the hand of a master craftsman. In fact, it takes a trained eye to recognize the valuable treasure hidden among the ordinary rocks in which they are found. Man is much like that. In his natural state he evidences little of worth. Whatever beauty is within him remains undiscovered until the Lord, the Master Jeweler, begins to work His skill upon him.

One man who will perhaps forever stand as "Exhibit A" of the power of God's workmanship upon a life is John Newton, author of the hymn "Amazing Grace." Newton's story is well known. His father was a seaman so he naturally gravitated toward the adventure of the sea. After working for a while in a respectable avenue of the seafaring trade, he asked to be transferred to a slave ship.

Newton witnessed and assented to the abuses to which his human cargo was subjected. The cruelties of slavery didn't touch his heart until he encountered an horrific storm that he knew would plunge the ship and its human cargo into the churning ocean. At that point, although he had disdained religion since losing his mother as a boy, he cried out, "God, save us!" The storm abated and the ship was safe. Alone in his cabin, Newton pondered the events he had just encountered and laid his life at the feet of Jesus.

Although we all have a 'past' from which we must be delivered, Newton's included extreme cruelty and abuse to fellow human beings, but the Lord transformed him through his trial from a man who had only faint reflections of youthful religious training into a minister of the gospel and the author of some of our most memorable hymns.

God used adversity to first cause Newton to cry out for mercy then remind him of the Lord he had once known and to cause him to turn to Jesus at the point of his helplessness. Though his heart was pliable in the hands of Christ, he didn't immediately realize his goal of service to the Kingdom of the Lord. Newton educated himself in the religious languages of the day, studied the Word and taught himself to listen to and follow after Jesus. As HE did with John Newton, so the unchanging Christ will use the adversity we face to bring us into a place of devotion and service to the Kingdom of God.

As HE did with John Newton, HE will use the trials we face to become the tools in His hand that will cut and polish us into beautiful gems that reflect His craftsmanship. He will use the worst trials we face as HE used Newton's violent storm at sea--as the diamond dust that elicits the utmost glory from the work He is doing in us. Through the worst that life hurls at us, God will reveal His power in our behalf. He will prove again that, “All things work together for good to those who love the Lord…” Romans 8:28.

The truth is that there are hundreds of slave boat captains whose names we will never know. Newton was not alone in his depth of depravity. But we know his name because he found Christ and experienced His mercy through all he suffered due to his sin. Jesus would have us to be like him in that regard...that all we suffer will become the diamond dust that enhances the glory of His unspeakable gift to us (II Corinthians 9:15).