It wasn’t until 1788, forty years after God’s grace found a wretch like him, that Newton would write, “I hope it will always be a subject of humiliating reflection to me, that I was, once, an active instrument, in a business at which my heart now shudders.” 3 There were forty years between his conversion and his conviction regarding the slave trade, forty years for the gospel to do its deep work in his heart. The grace was amazing that first day, but it took years to take root and blossom. And this for the man whose name is synonymous with amazing grace. Forty years—that’s quite a gap.
