A Wretch Like Who?

Before I spoke at a conference, a soloist sang one of my favorite songs, "Amazing Grace."

It was beautiful. Until she got to the tenth word.

"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a soul like me."

My heart sank. The word "wretch" had been edited out! I thought about John Newton, the song-writer. This former slave-trader, guilty of the vilest sins, knew he was a wretch. And that's what made God's grace so "amazing." Mind-boggling. Knock-down awesome.

If we're nothing more than morally neutral "souls," do you see what that does? It guts grace. The better we are, the less we need grace. The less amazing it becomes. (Change the Baby Jessica story to rescuing Osama bin Laden and you have a better picture of redemption.)

The Bible makes an astounding proclamation: "God showed us his love in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).
When you cut "wretch" out of the song, you shrink grace. You reduce it to something more sensible, less surprising.

If we weren't so bad without Christ, why did He have to endure the cross? Paul said if men were good enough, then "Christ died for nothing" (Galatians 2:21).

Grace never ignores the awful truth of our depravity. In fact, it emphasizes it. The worse we realize we are, the greater we realize God's grace is.



Grace isn't about God lowering His standards. It's about God fulfilling those standards through the substitutionary suffering of the Standard-setter. Christ went to the cross because He would not ignore the truths of His holiness and our sin. Grace never ignores or violates truth. Grace gave what truth demanded: the ultimate sacrifice for our sins.

Human depravity may be an insulting doctrine, but grasping it is liberating. Why? Because when I realize the best I can do without Him is like "filthy rags" in His sight (Isaiah 64:6), it finally sinks in that I have nothing to offer. Salvation therefore hinges on His work, not mine.

You and I, after all, weren't (or aren't, if you don't yet know Him) merely sick in our sins, we were dead in our sins (Ephesians 2:1-3). That means I'm not just unworthy of salvation, I'm utterly incapable of earning it. Corpses can't raise themselves from the grave.

What relief to realize my salvation cannot be earned by good works—and therefore can't be lost by bad ones.

If we see God as He really is, and ourselves as we really are, there's only one appropriate response: to worship Him. Humility isn't pretending we're unworthy because it's spiritual—it's recognizing we're unworthy because it's true.

A. W. Tozer said, "Only the humble are sane."

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