John Newton and the Relentless Pursuit of Grace

In 1748, John Newton was a slave trader sailing the West African coast, a man so profane that even hardened sailors flinched at his blasphemy. His mother had dedicated him to God as an infant, but Newton had sprinted in the opposite direction — into debauchery, cruelty, and a life that mocked everything sacred. He was, by his own later admission, a wretch in the fullest sense.

Yet God would not let him go.

During a violent storm off the coast of Donegal, Ireland, Newton's ship nearly broke apart. Terrified, he cried out to the Lord he had spent years cursing. It was not a clean conversion — Newton continued in the slave trade for years afterward. His turning was slow, stumbling, full of relapses. But the Almighty kept pursuing, kept calling, kept refusing to write him off.

This is the staggering portrait Hosea paints. God tells the prophet to marry Gomer, a woman who will be unfaithful, and to name their children "Not My People" and "No Mercy" — living symbols of Israel's betrayal. Yet in the very same breath, Jehovah promises restoration: where it was said "You are not my people," they will be called "children of the living God."

Newton eventually understood this. The man once called wretched became a pastor, an abolitionist, and the author of the world's most beloved hymn. El Roi — the God Who Sees — never stopped looking his direction.