Who Are You Calling a "Wretch"?

The professor stared unflinchingly at the crowd of students. Most of us were visibly nervous and slightly intimidated. He was not a physically imposing presence. He was short, with graying curly hair. His old coke-bottle thick lenses sat on the edge of his nose as if they were hanging on for dear life. An accident had left the right side of his body partially paralyzed, and one hand hung helplessly at his side. Nothing about him screamed “authoritative presence.”

Nothing except his voice.

The professor had spent most of his life in dramatic productions. Students hung on every word from his gravelly voice when he read Shakespeare. His intonation wrung every emotion out of each phrase. William Blake came to life, and Tennyson sat beside us whenever the professor embarked on one of his long monologues. The sound was daunting and inspiring. You listened to him almost as if you had no other choice. You contradicted him at your peril.

This day, however, he began his English class at our Christian college with the words, “I will never sing the song Amazing Grace.” The quiet was tangible as we waited for him to move past his dramatic pause. Finally, after several heartbeats of silence, he completed his thought. “For I am not and have never been a wretch! And I will never say that I am for the sake of religious tradition.”

I have never forgotten those words. I used to quote them until I realized how wrong he was.

Webster’s Dictionary defines a wretch as “a miserable person: one who is profoundly unhappy or in great misfortune” or “a base, despicable, or vile person.”[1]

He was a wretch.

And so was I.

Until I embraced (and was embraced by) grace.

The first of the eight doctrines from Foundations of the Faith is the importance of grace. In our key verse (Eph. 2:8-10), Paul begins by saying, “For by grace you have been saved.” However, to grasp the importance of grace, I must understand what it is and why I need it.

A common acronym for grace is “God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense. However, this creative truism doesn’t address our need or grace. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Rom. 1:18) and is coming on “the sons of disobedience” (Col. 3:6, NASB).

Romans 3:23-24 says, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Grace comes to those who accept their need for it. Without seeing my wretchedness, I cannot see what God has done for me through Christ.

“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

The wretches. Like me.

Grace, like a candle, brings light to those whose eyes are open to the darkness surrounding them and living within them. Grace will never be found by the man or woman with their eyes closed, struggling to tread the river of denial.

In his book, What’s So Amazing About Grace?, Philip Yancey wrote, “Having spent time around ‘sinners’ and… purported saints, I have a hunch why Jesus spent so much time with the former group: I think he preferred their company. Because the sinners were honest about themselves and had no pretense, Jesus could deal with them.”[2] Grace cancels the deserved penalty for sin and brings the believer to a place of undeserved favor with God the Father. “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (Tit. 2:11-12).

Yes, professor, we are wretches. However, “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I’m found. Was blind, but now I see!”[3]

[1] Merriam-Webster, s.v. “wretch (n.),” accessed November 12, 2022, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wretch.

[2] Philip Yancey, What's So Amazing About Grace? (Zondervan, 1997) 274, Kindle Edition. [3] John Newton, Amazing Grace (Public Domain).