灵命日粮 奇异恩典 你们得救是本乎恩，也因着信。 —以弗所书2章8节
Hongzhi Xu
奇异恩典
约翰·牛顿（John Newton）早期被迫参加皇家海军，因不服从命令而遭开除，后来他从事了贩卖奴隶的工作。牛顿恶名昭彰，因他喜欢说诅咒和亵渎的话。当时横越大西洋的残酷贩奴交易盛行，他在一艘贩卖奴隶的船上工作，从普通水手开始，最终当上了船长。
后来，在公海上的一个戏剧性转折，使他走向恩典之路，但他总觉得自己不配重获新生。后来，他成为一个热心的福音传道者，最终成为废奴运动的领导者。 牛顿在国会面前，以他的亲身经验做出无可辩驳的见证，痛斥贩卖奴隶的残酷与不道德。我们也知道他是诗歌「奇异恩典」的作词人，这首诗歌，可称得上是古往今 来最受喜爱的诗歌。
牛顿明白自己若有任何良善都是出于上帝恩典的作为。正如那些信心的伟人，如犯杀人罪和通奸罪的大卫王、懦弱不认主的使徒彼得，以及迫害基督徒的使徒保罗，他们皆因上帝的恩典才能荣神益人。
的确，凡是呼求上帝的都能得到相同的恩典，因「我们藉这爱子的血得蒙救赎，过犯得以赦免，乃是照祂丰富的恩典」（以弗所书1章7节）。
我罪已得赦免；
前我失丧，今被寻回，
瞎眼今得看见。
Newton
For by grace you have been saved through faith. —Ephesians 2:8
Pressed into service in the Royal Navy, John Newton was dismissed for insubordination and turned to a career trafficking in slaves. Notorious for cursing and blasphemy, Newton served on a slave ship during the cruelest days of trans-Atlantic slavery, finally working his way up to captain.
A dramatic conversion on the high seas set him on the path to grace. He always felt a sense of undeservedness for his new life. He became a rousing evangelical preacher and eventually a leader in the abolitionist movement. Newton appeared before Parliament, giving irrefutable eyewitness testimony to the horror and immorality of the slave trade. We also know him as the author of the lyrics of perhaps the best-loved hymn of all time, “Amazing Grace.”
Newton described any good in himself as an outworking of God’s grace. In doing so, he stands with these great heroes—a murderer and adulterer (King David), a coward (the apostle Peter), and a persecutor of Christians (the apostle Paul).
This same grace is available to all who call upon God, for “in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:7). —Philip Yancey
Amazing grace—how sweet the sound—
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind but now I see. —Newton
Lives rooted in God’s unchanging grace can never be uprooted.