To know the life of John Newton is to know the sheer power of God’s grace.

From roughly the age of 10-30, the formative years of life, Newton lived on the sea actively working in the burgeoning slave trade. He was nearly killed several times, was himself a slave in Africa, and eventually God’s mercy found him out. On March 10, 1748 Newton wrote in his journal, “In a violent storm, my address was ‘Lord, have mercy.’ Oh it was mercy indeed, to save a wretch like me.”

From that conversion came a ministry that hasn’t stopped bearing fruit. His hymns are sung all across the world each week, his letters continue to offer a peculiar power in pastoral wisdom, and his sermons inspire a deeper love for Christ. Spurgeon said, “In few writers are Christian doctrine, experience and practice more happily balanced than in the author of these letters, and few write with more simplicity, piety and force.”

Praise God that 2015 is poised to a be banner publishing year for John Newton.

The Works Return

The first noteworthy publication is Banner of Truth’s planned printing Newton’s works. The six-volume set originally put out by Banner in 1985 recently went out of print and the Trust has been quiet on when the new collection would come out. We still don’t know the publication date, but we do know sometime this year Banner will bring out a completely reformatted, four-volume set of Newton’s works. They say, “The text of this new four-volume edition of The Works of John Newton has been entirely reformatted, producing a clear and easily navigable set of documents for today’s reader.”

Here’s what the Trust has to say about this collection:

When John Newton, ex-sea captain and, as yet, unsuccessful candidate for the Church of England ministry, finished his first book (an autobiography) in 1762 there was no ready publisher. Any thought that he was destined to become one of the best known authors of his age would have been as fantastic as the last 37 years of his life. But in both cases the improbable came about. Becoming curate of Olney, a small village in the south of England, in 1764, Newton there laid his reputation as an evangelical writer, pre-eminently by his published letters and by the Olney Hymns (including ‘How Great the Name of Jesus Sounds, ‘Glorious things of Thee are spoken’ and ‘Amazing grace’). Before the end of his subsequent pastorate at St. Mary Woolnoth, London (1780-1807), his writings were prized around the world from America to Australia.

Newton has a firm place in the classics of Christian literature. While his style is strong and clear, it is the spiritual attractiveness and importance of his main themes which secure the permanent value of his writings. Most of his books came, unpremeditated, out of a need to help his congregation or individual hearers, and it is in practical helpfulness towards Christian living that he excels. If he is loved rather than admired, it is for this reason. Conformity to Christ is the one subject upon which his themes finally focus (‘It will not be a burden to me at the hour of death that I have thought too highly of Jesus, expected too much from Him myself, or laboured too much in commending and setting Him forth to others’). Not surprisingly, Alexander Whyte could write, ‘For myself, I keep John Newton on my selectest shelf of spiritual books: by far the best kind of books in the whole world of books.’

A Modern Synthesis

This year also brings new volumes Crossway’s useful Theologians on the Christian Life series. One new addition is Tony Reinke’s work Newton on the Christian Life: To Live is Christ. The summary blurb tells the tale of Reinke’s book,

John Newton is best known as the slave trader turned hymn writer who penned the most popular English hymn in history: “Amazing Grace.” However, many Christians are less familiar with the decades he spent in relative obscurity, laboring as a “spiritual doctor” while pastoring small parishes in England. In the latest addition to Crossway’s growing Theologians on the Christian Life series, Tony Reinke introduces modern readers to Newton’s pastoral wisdom by leading them through the many sermons, hymns, and—most importantly—letters that he wrote over the course of his life. Considered by many to be one of the greatest letter writers of all time, Newton has valuable insights to offer modern Christians, especially when it comes to fusing together sound doctrine, lived experience, and godly practice.

Newton on the Christian Life is scheduled to drop on May 31st.

Set aside some book money this year and serve your soul with good Mr. Newton. Tolle lege!