Nothing is impossible with God. My dear friends. . . hear it again: Absolutely nothing is impossible with God! Do you ever feel like your sin makes you unlovable, or that your sin is too awful to forgive or ever forget? Nothing is impossible with God. There may be other people who cannot see past your sin or who just can’t seem to forgive you. Maybe you can’t even forgive yourself! But God’s mercy and grace are so amazing that he forgives you the very moment you ask.

Speaking of amazing grace, would it surprise you to know that John Newton, the man who wrote the song, Amazing Grace, was at one time a foul mouthed, hard-core atheist and slave trader? When he was 18 years old, the British Navy stripped him to his waist and flogged him with eight dozen lashes in front of 350 men. But that didn’t break him, and by the time Newton was 20 years old he was so despised by his shipmates that his slave ship dumped him in Africa where he became a slave himself.

Years later, after being rescued by another slave ship, Wikipedia says, “Newton gained notoriety as being one of the most profane men the captain had ever met. In a culture where sailors habitually swore, Newton was admonished several times for not only using the worst words the captain had ever heard, but creating new ones to exceed the limits of verbal debauchery. In March 1748, while on a ship in the North Atlantic, a violent storm swept overboard a crew member who was standing where Newton had been moments before. After hours of the crew emptying water from the ship and expecting to be capsized, Newton and another mate tied themselves to the ship’s pump to keep from being washed overboard, working for several hours. Finally Newton said to the captain, “If this will not do, then Lord have mercy upon us!” Newton rested briefly before returning to the deck to steer for the next eleven hours. During his time at the wheel, he pondered his divine challenge.

About two weeks later, the battered ship and starving crew landed in Ireland. The memory of his own “Lord have mercy upon us!” uttered during a moment of desperation in the storm did not leave him and he began to ask if he was worthy of God’s mercy or in any way redeemable. Not only had he neglected his faith but directly opposed it, mocking others who showed theirs, deriding and denouncing God as a myth. He came to believe that God had sent him a profound message and had begun to work through him.”

Wow! God sure watched over those sailors! After that dramatic experience, Newton went from being an atheist to a believer in Christ Jesus. In the years that followed, he slowly grew in his faith and eventually became a pastor and leading abolitionist to end slave trading.

His transformation changed the lives of millions of Africans destined for slavery, and today his song inspires us with these words:

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.

John Newton once said, “I see no reason the Lord singled me out for mercy…unless it was to show that with him nothing is impossible.” An angel told the virgin Mary the same words, “Nothing is impossible for God” (Lk 1:37)! And some 30 years later, Jesus talked to his disciples about who could be saved and said it again, “All things are possible with God” (Mk 10:27).

Yes. . . We can know indeed that nothing is impossible with our God who raised Jesus from the dead. It is a message that needs to be shared around the globe. Jesus not only told us about God’s mercy, but showed us with both his life and death, the true depth of God’s amazing grace.