John Newton: Sovereignty and Salvation

John Newton's life before coming to know Jesus was one of wanton sin, pleasure-seeking, and despair. When Hod was pleased to call him into His service, Newton, like the Apostle Paul, never forgot who he was or what he deserved. That God would save a wretch like him, when he had neither desired nor looked for grace, was the unceasing wonder of his life. Knowing the depths of his previous sinful state turned the truth that God sovereignly elects and saves, from an intellectual proposition into a precious foundation of hope. 

"Salvation is wholly of grace, not only undeserved but undesired by us until God is pleased to awaken us to a sense of our need of it."