There is much to learn from 18th century pastor and hymn writer John Newton.

Newton's autobiography was a best-selling hit in his day, and we still sing his hymns

today.

His whole life is a testament to God's sovereign grace and saving, a wretched sinner,

a story captured well, and his most famous hymn, Amazing Grace.

And we celebrate John Newton's birthday today.

So today has me thinking about him, his hymns, and his living legacy, it's a rich legacy

he left behind.

I was honored to write a whole book on his pastoral council, and that really gave me the chance

to soak in his pastoral letters for about three years.

He wrote amazing letters to people who were in need and needing answers, something very

reminiscent to this podcast.

And Pastor John has a wonderful biographical message looking at the life of Newton.

It's titled John Newton, the tough roots of his habitual tenderness, and particularly

Newton has a lot to teach us on the topic of controversy and how to argue like a Calvinist.

Here's Pastor John in that 2001 biographical message, talking about John Newton's approach

to controversy and speaking to a room of pastors.

Here's what he said.

Now maybe the most illuminating way to get at this man's pattern of tenderness is to

talk about the way he handled his Calvinism and his doctrine and controversies of his

day and so on.

This is something I'm very, very interested in for us and for myself in particular.

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