Beyond Amazing Grace

In his old age, when he could no longer see to read, John Newton heard someone repeat this text, "By the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Cor 15:10). He remained silent a short time and then, as if speaking to himself, he said, "I am not what I ought to be. Ah! How imperfect and deficient! I am not what I wish to be. I abhor that which is evil, and I would cleave to that which is good. I am not what I hope to be. Soon, soon I shall put off mortality and with mortality all sin and imperfection. Though I am not what I ought to be, what I wish to be, and what I hope to be, yet I can truly say, I am not what I once was, a slave to sin and Satan. I can heartily join with the apostle and acknowledge, 'By the grace of God, I am what I am'.

From THE GRACE OF CHRIST by William Plumer