Scripture at Sunrise 10.06.2021

“This is my comfort in my affliction, that Your promise gives me life.” -Psalm 119:50

“The firmament of Scripture is spangled with promises as the sky is with stars, perceptible to us only in the night of affliction.” -John Newton

Happy New Year!

From all the guilt of former sin
May mercy set us free;
And let the year we now begin,
Begin and end with Thee.

John Newton

Scripture at Sunrise 3.4.2015

“…waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works.” -Titus 2:13-14

“All my hopes and comforts may be summed up by saying, I have a gracious Savior.” -John Newton

Scripture at Sunrise 6.19.2013

For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. -Malachi 3:6

November 6, 1777

My dear Sir,

You say you are more disposed to cry miserere than hallelujah.  Why not both together?  When the treble is praise, and heart humiliation for the bass, the melody is pleasant, and the harmony good.  However, if not both together, we must have them alternately: not all singing, not all sighing, but an interchange and balance, that we may be neither lifted up too high nor cast down too low, which would be the case if we were very comfortable or very sorrowful for a long continuance.  But though we change, the Savior changes not.

All our concerns are in his hands, and therefore safe.  His path is in the deep waters; his thoughts and methods of conduct are as high above ours as the heavens are high above the earth; and he often takes a course for accomplishing his purposes directly contrary to what our narrow views would prescribe.  He wounds, in order to heal; kills, that he may make alive; casts down, when he designs to raise; brings a death upon our feelings, wishes and prospects, when he is about to give us the desire of our hearts.  These things he does to prove us; but he himself knows, and has determined beforehand, what he will do.

The proof indeed usually turns out to our shame.  Impatience and unbelief show their heads, and prompt us to suppose this and the other thing, yes, perhaps all things, are against us; to question whether he be with us and for us, or not.  But it issues likewise in the praise of his goodness, when we find that, in spite of all our unkind complaints and suspicions, he is still working wonderfully for us, causing light to shine out of darkness and doing us good in defiance of ourselves.

I am, etc.

John Newton

[Doing us good in defiance of ourselves, a post from Ray Ortlund]

 

Scripture at Sunrise 5.8.2013

“For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” -Romans 8:3-4

Christ has taken our nature into heaven to represent us, and has left us on earth with His nature to represent Him. —John Newton

Scripture at Sunrise 8.4.2010

“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain…”  -1 Corinthians 15:10

I am not what I ought to be — ah, how imperfect and deficient! I am not what I wish to be — I abhor what is evil, and I would cleave to what is good! I am not what I hope to be — soon, soon shall I put off mortality, and with mortality all sin and imperfection. Yet, though I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor what I hope to be, I can truly say, I am not what I once was; a slave to sin and Satan; and I can heartily join with the apostle, and acknowledge, “By the grace of God I am what I am.”  -John Newton

Scripture @ Sunrise 11.21.08

“[Christ] is far greater than any king in all the earth. All priase to Him who always loves us and who set us free from our sins by pouring out His lifeblood for us. He has gathered us into His Kingdom and made us priests of God His Father. Give to Him everlasting glory! He rules forever! Amen!” -Revelation 1:5-6

Let Us Love, and Sing, and Wonder
Let us love and sing and wonder,
Let us praise the Savior’s Name!
He has hushed the law’s loud thunder,
He has quenched Mount Sinai’s flame.
He has washed us with His blood,
He has brought us nigh to God.

Let us love the Lord Who bought us,
Pitied us when enemies,
Called us by His grace, and taught us,
Gave us ears and gave us eyes:
He has washed us with His blood,
He presents our souls to God.

Let us sing, though fierce temptation
Threaten hard to bear us down!
For the Lord, our strong Salvation,
Holds in view the conqueror’s crown:
He Who washed us with His blood
Soon will bring us home to God.

Let us wonder; grace and justice
Join and point to mercy’s store;
When through grace in Christ our trust is,
Justice smiles and asks no more:
He Who washed us with His blood
Has secured our way to God.

Let us praise, and join the chorus
Of the saints enthroned on high;
Here they trusted Him before us,
Now their praises fill the sky:
“Thou hast washed us with Your blood;
Thou art worthy, Lamb of God!”

Hark! the Name of Jesus, sounded
Loud, from golden harps above!
Lord, we blush, and are confounded,
Faint our praises, cold our love!
Wash our souls and songs with blood,
For by Thee we come to God.
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Much has been made of John Newton’s move from the slave trade to the church. It was a turnaround that rivaled that of the apostle Paul, and Newton always recognized the depths of sin from which he had come. The “wretch like me” in “Amazing Grace” was no exaggeration. Newton knew that he had sinned greatly; he also knew the greatness of God’s redeeming grace.

This hymn, however, comes from later years, when Newton was a renowned preacher. It is rich with theology and biblical images. Christ has “hushed the Law’s loud thunder,” says Newton, evoking images of Mount Sinai. For centuries the Law stood strong and unkeepable. “You’re not good enough!” it rumbled. But Christ has silenced that rumble with the sweet promise of His own righteousness.

Grace and justice join in Christ, says Newton. Normally these two words don’t belong in the same sentence, but when our trust is in Christ’s righteousness, both are satisfied—“justice smiles and asks no more.”

[from the April 28 entry of “The One Year Book of Hymns“]

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Listen to full traditional version.
Listen to a snippet of Jars of Clay’s version.