{"id":45823,"date":"2008-01-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-01-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/grace-for-worst-of-sinners\/"},"modified":"2008-01-07T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T18:50:56","slug":"grace-for-worst-of-sinners","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/grace-for-worst-of-sinners\/","title":{"rendered":"Grace for the Worst of Sinners"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The film <em>Amazing Grace<\/em> chronicles William Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffedd) as he endeavors to end the British transatlantic slave trade in the nineteenth century.<\/p>\n\n<p>Wilberforce has made an earlier visit to his old pastor and friend John Newton (Albert Finney). Newton himself was a former captain of a slave ship prior to his conversion to Christ and Wilberforce was hopeful that Newton would give an account of his slave-ship days. Newton, however, refused to do so, because the experience and the &quot;20,000 ghosts&quot; haunted him too greatly.<\/p>\n\n<p>Now, near success in ending the slave trade, Wilberforce visits Newton and discovers that he has recorded his account. His eyesight now gone, Newton says to Wilberforce, &quot;You must use it. Names, records, ship records, ports, people&mdash;everything I remember is in here. Although my memory is fading, I remember two things very clearly: I&#39;m a great sinner, and Christ is a great Savior.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>Rated: PG<\/p>\n\n<p>Elapsed time: Chapter 19; this scene begins at 1:27:50, and ends at 1:28:20.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3451,3573,3583,3663,3719,4010,4088,4250,4293,4315,4317,4341,4569,4592,4782,4784,4805,4877,4977,5005,5011],"tax_ctp_topics":[384,386,393],"class_list":["post-45823","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-atonement","tax_ctp_tags-christ","tax_ctp_tags-christ-our-righteousness","tax_ctp_tags-confession","tax_ctp_tags-cross-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-forgiveness","tax_ctp_tags-grace","tax_ctp_tags-injustice","tax_ctp_tags-jesus-christ","tax_ctp_tags-justice","tax_ctp_tags-justification","tax_ctp_tags-law","tax_ctp_tags-oppression","tax_ctp_tags-pardon","tax_ctp_tags-redemption","tax_ctp_tags-reform","tax_ctp_tags-repentance","tax_ctp_tags-salvation","tax_ctp_tags-sin","tax_ctp_tags-social-action","tax_ctp_tags-social-justice"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Grace for the Worst of Sinners - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/grace-for-worst-of-sinners\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Grace for the Worst of Sinners - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The film Amazing Grace chronicles William Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffedd) as he endeavors to end the British transatlantic slave trade in the nineteenth century. 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