John Newton, author of “Amazing
Grace” also wrote many other hymns.
Along with his friend William Cowper they wrote an entire hymnal, “The
Olney Hymnal”, so named after Olney, England where it was written. Another great hymn from John Newton is “He
Died for Me”. In Genesis chapter 22 we
find just such a substitutionary death illustrated for us.
Abraham and Sarah now had a boy of
their own. He wasn’t just a little lad
anymore. He was a young man. Then one day God called upon Abraham with a
very strange and scary demand, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom
you love . . . and offer him as a burnt offering.” Hagar and her son had been sent away. By God’s divine record keeping Abraham had only
one son that counted, Isaac. He was the
son of promise. He was to be the heir of
all the promises that God had given to Abraham.
He was Abraham and Sarah’s pride and joy and hope for their own
future. Now God said to Abraham, “Take
this boy and offer him as a sacrifice.”
God had a plan that Abraham did not
know about. That is true for us
all. We can’t see tomorrow. We have a hard time handling all the demands
of today without getting behind with interruptions and side issues. But God had a plan. It was a plan of grace.
Abraham obeyed God and took Isaac to
the appointed spot and tied him up and laid him on the altar. As he was raising the knife to slay his son
God intervened. “No, Abraham, you do not
need to kill Isaac. Look behind you, Abraham.” There, caught by its horns in a thicket was a
ram. Abraham untied Isaac and then took
the ram and put it on the altar in Isaac’s place. The ram died for Isaac. The ram is a picture of Jesus Christ dying
for us. The child of promise, who is a
picture of Jesus Christ, was figuratively raised from the dead. The substitute ram, also a picture of Jesus
Christ, died in his place.
Now we can consider the title of
John Newton’s great hymn “He Died for Me”.
We were supposed to die for our sins.
Instead God provided a substitute, His own sinless Son, to die for
us. The fifth stanza of his hymn
concludes with Jesus saying to the audience at the cross, “This blood is for
thy ransom paid. I die that you may
live.” Then Newton concludes the whole
with a chorus that captures the amazing grace of God’s gift to us. “Oh, can it be, upon a tree the Savior died
for me? My soul is thrilled; my heart is
filled, to think He died for me.”
You
may also enjoy this inspirational devotional book, The Gospel According to Molly,
available
here:
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