# “I am not what I once was” by John Newton

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2008/09/12/i-am-not-what-i-once-was-by-john-newton/
- Published: 2008-09-12T10:47:09-05:00
- Author: tollelege

“I am not what I ought to be. Ah! How imperfect and deficient! I am not what I wish
to be. I abhor what is evil, and I would cleave to what is good. I am not what I
hope to be. Soon, soon, I shall put off mortality, and with mortality all sin and
imperfection. Yet, though I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor
what I hope to be, I can truly say, I am not what I once was—a slave to sin and 
Satan. And I can heartily join with the apostle, and acknowledge, ‘By the grace 
of God, I am what I am.’”

–Quoted in John Whitecross, _The Shorter Catechism Illustrated_ (Edinburgh: Banner
of Truth, 1968), question 35.

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