"...the hell I merit."

I was struck recently by a rendition of Amazing Grace in which the first line had been changed from, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me," to a grace "that saved a soul like me."  This was not the first time I had heard this version, but it had been years.  We do not like to come face to face with our own wretchedness, do we?  We do not like to know or admit (let alone, confess)how deep our need for a savior runs.  And therefore we cannot grasp how thoroughly loved we are - in spite of ourselves. 


 In our first two weeks of looking at Ephesians 1.1-10, it seems that the Apostle Paul is bent on taking us down to the bedrock truth of God's great love for us and the utter joy and delight - his good pleasure and will - with which he has enthusiastically blessed, chosen, predestined and graced us.  If we are afraid to admit or own "wretchedness", however, I doubt if we will ever be able to take this truth to heart. It is only when we see our sinfulness as it truly is that we come face to face with how truly good and loving God is.  While we were yet sinners Christ died for us. 


 A line from an old Puritan prayer puts it this way: 

O Lord, I am astonished at the difference between my receivings and my deservings, between the state I am now in and my past gracelessness, between the heaven I am bound for and the hell I merit. 

I pray we all get a glimpse of our own deep wretchedness, and that it may be quickly swallowed up by the expansive love of the God who saves and redeems us - a glipmse of the hell we merit, soundly overtaken by the heaven (and the New Heavens and New Earth) we are bound for.  This is where The Year of Living Dangerously begins!


To download last Sunday's Mission Briefing, go here.