Amazing Grace, How sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me I once was lost, but now am found T’was blind but now I see

Most of us have probably sung this song many times, but how often do we just repeat the words without thinking about what the words really mean. So let’s take a few minutes to look at them a little closer.

Amazing Grace, How sweet the sound, hold on to that and we’ll come back to this line

That saved a wretch like me, what is a wretch? We don’t use that word very often today, so some may not truly understand what it means.  The Dictionary says it’s “a person of despicable or base character.” Many will say well that’s not me, I’m not a despicable person! Who do you think of when you think about a despicable person? Adolf Hitler? Usama Bin Laden? Or the Kid who shot up the school a couple weeks ago? But whose standard are we using to decide if someone is despicable or not? Our own standard? The standard of our culture? Hasn’t the standard of what is considered despicable changed in our culture over the years? There are many things that are accepted today that would have been considered despicable just a few years ago.

The Apostle John tells the Church in Laodicea in the Book of Revelation.   “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot!  So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are WRETCHED, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” Revelation 3:15-17 (ESV)

So someone can be a wretch, and not know it, as a matter of fact there are many, many people in our culture how don’t realize they are wretches.  All because they are looking at the wrong standard for what it means to be a despicable wretch.  So where do we find the right standard? We find it in the one who made the standard, the one who made us! God’s Word says in Romans 3:9-18 (ESV)
For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, ¹⁰ as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; ¹¹ no one understands; no one seeks for God. ¹² All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” ¹³ “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” ¹⁴ “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” ¹⁵ “Their feet are swift to shed blood; ¹⁶ in their paths are ruin and misery, ¹⁷ and the way of peace they have not known.” ¹⁸ “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

So by God’s Standard who is a Despicable Wretch? I am, others are! Everyone reading this is, everyone you encounter today is.

Think about this when you sing, that Amazing Grace saved a “Wretch like me”

I once was lost, but now am found T’was blind but now I see

Before Grace, we are all Lost and Blind.  Think about someone who is lost in the woods.  They are wandering around, not knowing where they are going, sometimes just walking in circles. What if he finds a map and a compass is he any better off?  Maybe if he knows how to read the map and use the compass!

Now think about someone who is blind, Kids sometimes play a game where they are blindfolded and they have to try to attach a tail in the right place on the picture of a donkey.  It’s fun to watch them and most of the time the tail ends up some place other than where it belongs.
A person who hasn’t received God’s Amazing Grace is like that, they are wandering around in circles in life not knowing where they are going.  Sometimes they may even have God’s map “The Bible” but if they try to  use it as a kind of a “self-help” book they it doesn’t do them much good, they are not using properly. They try to put the pieces of their life together, but they are blind and keep putting them in the wrong places.

But Now I’m found, and Now I see, what caused this transformation? The Amazing Grace of God.  Through the work of Jesus Christ and the power of The Holy Spirit you are to realize that you are lost, and that you are blind but now you can clearly see that you are a Despicable Wretch and that only God’s amazing grace can save, a Despicable Wretch like me, then someone can fully understand just how sweet the sound of Amazing Grace, really is.