18 pages • 36-minute read
Amazing Grace
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Symbols & Motifs
God’s Grace
The Christian notion of grace—the forgiveness and beneficence of God—pervades the hymn. When the speaker praises “[a]mazing grace” (Line 1), they’re extolling the munificence of God. While grace represents God, God and grace are not interchangeable. Grace is a part of God and exclusive to God but grace isn’t God: God was always present in the speaker’s world, but the speaker didn’t receive God’s grace until “the hour [they] first believed” (Line 8).
Unlike God, grace isn’t omnipresent. Not every person feels God’s grace, as God’s grace doesn’t automatically apply to all people. Not everyone has “found” (Line 2) God’s benevolence, nor can anyone automatically “see” (Line 4) God’s healing powers. Thus, grace represents an exclusive relationship between God and the speaker. Once the speaker heeds God, they become filled with God’s grace, which keeps them “safe” (Line 11) and produces “joy and peace” (Line 20). Through God’s grace, the speaker receives protection and happiness. It guarantees a harmonious life and arguably promises a place in heaven or “home” (Line 12).
Fear
Fear symbolizes motivation toward finding a way out of the speaker’s miserable pre-faith existence. After the speaker first develops faith, “Twas grace that taught my heart to fear” (Line 5). The first version of fear represents the sudden terror of continuing a sinful and unenlightened life. If the speaker remains “a wretch” (Line 2), the implication is that they’ll have much to be afraid of since God will punish them with further torment on earth and possibly an afterlife in hell. Belief in God “taught” the speaker to “see” (Line 4) and be frightened of these adverse consequences, which, in turn, spurs the speaker to radically change.
Secure in their belief in God, the speaker’s fears vanish: “[G]race my fears relieved” (Line 6). The version of fear demonstrates the newfound absence of threat. With God, the speaker is safe, so they don’t need to fret about “dangers” (Line 9). The immunity from fear acts as further motivation to remain linked with God. As long as the speaker devotes their life to God, they have nothing to be afraid of. The lack of fear is comforting and catalyzes the speaker’s faith.
The Transactional Dynamic
A somewhat subversive reading of the hymn produces the motif of a transactional relationship between the speaker and God, with the speaker serving as the consumer and God representing the product. What looks like a spiritual conversation becomes a facet of a quid pro quo exchange. The speaker uses God as a means to makeover their life, offering up their identity as permanent payment for the grace God offers. The transaction with God makes the speaker feel grounded in a volatile world, producing stability and “a life of joy and peace” (Line 20) where before there were only feelings of being “lost” and “blind” (Lines 3, 4).
Although Newton’s full life suggests his Christian beliefs were sincere, and despite the fact that the numerous artists who performed the song likely had earnest motives too, “Amazing Grace” has itself become a transaction-enabling product—a piece of music people record, market, and make profitable.
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