Demaray, Donald E.

English

Asbury Theological Seminary

The Ided or Sin in the Theology ofJohn NewtonDonald E. DemarayAt the early age of eleven, John Newton went to sea at thecom^mand of his father. By the time he was fifteen years ofage he had made several voyages. "During this period, , ,he learned to curse and blaspheme, and was exceedinglywicked, "1 But the death of a friend served to awaken him andfor two years he attempted to reform, chiefly by an ascetictype of discipline. It was not long, however, until, as Newtonsays, "I renounced the hopes and comfort of the gospel, whenevery other hope was to fail me. "^The habit of swearing was so deeply ingrained in John Newton that it was habitual with him. Furthermore , he renouncedhis belief in God and classed himself as an infidel. Yet, inhis own strength he tried to reform from time to time. Infact, vacillation between willful participation in sin and attempted reformwas the chief characteristic of Newton's morallife up to the time Josiah Bull terms the "turning-point"� anawful storm at sea in March of 1748. From then on Newtonbegan to think seriously about the Christian gospel and its demands on his life.Looking back on this experience of the storm at sea and hisconversion, Newtonwrote in the language of hymnody, the factof his personal sinfulness and God's grace:Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,That saved a wretch like me !I once was lost, but now am found.Was blind, but now I see,'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,And grace my fears relieved;Josiah Bull, John Newton of Olney and St. Mary Woolnoth. An Autobiographyand Narrative, etc. , p, 13,^Ibid. , p, 17.20 Ashury SeminarianHow precious did that grace appearThe hour I first believed!Thro' many dangers, toils and snares,I have already come;'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far.And grace will lead me home.This last quoted verse points up not only the dangers inthat storm at sea in March, 1748, but a host of other experiences. The slave trade of which he was a part for so long,was a sinful, depraved social practice of his day, and it wasdangerous. How often the slaves in the chain rebelled, throwing the captain and crew overboard! Newton knew all too wellthe sinful sources of irritation behind such rebellion. Yearslater he wrote and preached against slavery calling it "thatunhappy and disgraceful branch of commerce, "^ A friend ofNewton's is reported to have said that "he never spent onehalf-hour in Newton's company without hearing some allusionto slavery and to Newton's remorse for his early share in thetrade. "'^Experience and the Fact of SinIt is out of this wretched experience of sin that Newtonpreaches about it. Sin was no mere theological idea which hadsomehow to fit into a system of thought! Anything but that!Sin was real; it was a fact. How Newton must have' despisedthe popular deistic concept of sin in his own day, that "Whateveris, is right, "^ and that sin is not really to be taken seriously.To Newton it was incredible that sin should be taken any otherway than seriously. But the fact is that eighteenth centuryDeism flatly denied the existence of sin and evil in the worldand said that "man is not vile, but exactly what he should be. "^Perhaps Newton fought this notion even more than Wesleybecause of his own bitter experiences in sin. How clearlydoes Newton paint the fact of sin in his hymn entitled "A SickSoul":Physician of my sin-sick soul.To thee I bring my case;^ Works , vol, VI, P, 521, from "Thoughts upon the AfricanSlave Trade, " (Third edition, 1824, Works in six volumes. )4 Bernard Martin, John Newton, p, 55.^ Pope from his "Essay on Man. "6 Basil Willey, The Eighteenth Century Background , p. 46.The Idea of Sin tn the Theology of John Newton 21My raging malady control,And heal me by thy grace.Pity the anguish I endure.See how I mourn and pine ;For never can I hope a cureFrom any hand but thine,I would disclose my whole complaint.But where shall I beginNo words of mine can fully paintThat worst distemper, sin,Pride and the Nature of SinReferring to the Garden of Eden story, Newton says thatthe root of Adam's sin was pride:Compell'd to answer to his name.With stubbornness and pride.He cast on God himself the blame;Nor once for mercy cry'd. 8The creature put himself in the place of the Creator; he wantedto take the place of God. Thus the unbelief and rebellion ofAdam�and of us too, for we, like Adam of old, are alsoproud�points to pride as the essence and origin of sin. Manis more interested in fulfilling his own wishes than in obeyingGod's commands.In pin-pointing pride as the real nature or essence of sin,Newton follows in the Augustinian tradition, Man's "fall wasdue to pride, the greatest of all sins, which means putting ofself before God and the denial of one's absolute dependence onhim. "9 So A, C. McGiffert's description of Augustine's position.Suffering and the Results of SinNewton speaks of the "bitter fruits" of sin. What does hemean by this expression? He has direct reference to deathand suffering. It was John Newton's belief that with the advent' Olney Hymns , Book I, 83.^ Ibid. , Book I, number 1.^A. C. McGiffert, A Histoty of Christian Thought, vol. II, p. 90.22 Asbury Seminarianof Adam's sin, two kinds of death were introduced into theworld: spiritual and physical. Originally man possessed "aspiritual and divine life; for he was created in the image ofGod, in righteousness and true holiness. "this moralimage . . . was totally lost by sin. In that sense, he died theday, the moment, he ate the forbidden fruit. "''"�'" Adam haddeprived himself of the presence of God; he lost his formerfeeling of "at-homeness" with deity. "He no longer desired,he no longer could bear, the presence of his offended Maker. "-'�2He was dead spiritually! Now fear and anxiety took the placeof serenity in the human soul, and ignorance and guilt replacedinnocence and knowledge of God.If Adam's sin meant the coming of spiritual death, it alsomeant the ushering in of physical death and natural evil. Subsequent to the Fall life became a struggle on the road whichleads to physical death. "Sin is the cause of all the labour,sickness, and pain. . ."13 "Sin has brought us all under asentence of death . . .14 Man had been warned that, "In theday that thou eatest�thou shalt surely die. "Once again, this was no mere theory in the thought of JohnNewton. Again and again, from pulpit and in living room conversation, Newton warned his people of the tragic results ofsin. Every New Year's day he held a service for his youngpeople and he spent a good deal of time in prayer and preparation for that service; he always warned his yoimg friendsabout the tragic results of sin. Sin always causes pain, suffering, and unhappiness, he announced.Christ and the Cure of SinNewton never ceased to be amazed at the grace of God operative in the converted personality. He sang about it, hepreached about it, he was a living example of God's grace.God was available through Jesus Christ. To paint the horridpicture of sin in human experience served only one purpose,to point to the cure of sin in a Person, Jesus Christ, whooffered grace and forgiveness.Now the cross was no mere unfortunate incident in history.No indeed! The cross made possible redemption from sin.Though God allowed evil and sin to enter the world, he also10 Works , vol. IV, p. 462.Works , vol. I, p. 576. 13/^/^., p. 461.^^Works , vol. IV, p. 435. l^lfW^i , vol. II, p. 433.The Idea of Sin in the Theology o^ John Newton 23sent his Son into the world "to restore us to the favour of God;to reconcile us to ourselves, and to each other; to give uspeace and joy in life, hope and triumph in death, and afterdeath glory, honour and immortality. "^^ So moved is Newtonby the place of the cross in redeeming man, that he sings:When on the cross my Lord I see,Bleeding to death for wretched me,Satan and sin no more can move.For I am all transform'd to love.John Newton's doctrine of the cross points up his purposiveChristology, and any doctrine which negated this purposiveChristology he abhorred. Thus he could not accept the deisticstatement of man's nature, which indicated that man "nolonger" needs to "foster any gloomy conviction of sin, nor anyenthusiastic yearning for salvation, ^'^ because he is in himselfgood and possesses the capabilities of being good. " If this betrue, then there is no need for Jesus Christ and His work.Contrary to the deistic position, Newton holds that the "ideaof deliverance presupposes a state of distress. . . , " and thatthe purpose of Christ's "appearance in the world" was '"tosave sinners, "'18 This "was the sole design of his advent. . . ,"19 which Newton sees prophesied in the Old Testamentand fulfilled in the New. It follows that Jesus Christ occupiesa place in history not as a mere man who lived and died in acertain period, but as the One who fulfilled God's purpose formankind by his mighty acts which culminated in providingsalvation from sin.'^^Ibid. , p. 284.Olney Hymns , Book E, number 54.1*^ Basil Willey, of . cit., p. 47.Works , vol. II, p. 282.19/A/V/. , p. 284.

The Idea of Sin in the Theology of John Newton

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The Idea of Sin in the Theology of John Newton

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