If ever a man understood grace — the undeserved, unearned mercy and favor of God — it was John Newton. After several voyages across the Atlantic, aboard sailing ships packed with terrified human beings, bound to one another and soon to be bound for life to slave owners, he experienced the impact of God’s grace, became an evangelical Christian minister, and spent the rest of his life striving to repay God’s grace by preaching about the opposite of slavery: freedom through salvation.
