John Newton on the Christian Life

I am not what I ought to be.

Ah! how imperfect and deficient.

Not what I might be,

considering my privileges and opportunities.

Not what I wish to be.

God, who knows my heart, knows I wish to be like him.

I am not what I hope to be;

ere long to drop this clay tabernacle, to be like him and see him as He is.

Not what I once was,

a child of sin, and slave of the devil.

Thought not all these,

not what I ought to be,

not what I might be,

not what I wish or hope to be, and

not what once was,

I think I can truly say with the apostle,

“By the grace of God I am what I am.”

—John Newton (1725-1807), cited in Letters of John Newton, p. 400.

(HT: JT)