“I know Jesus died for sinners. I know I am a sinner.
I know He invites them that are ready to perish. I am such a one.
I know, upon His own invitation, I have committed myself to Him.
And I know, by the effects, that He has been with me hitherto, otherwise I should have been an apostate long ago.
And therefore I know that He died for me. For had He been pleased to kill me (as he justly might have done), He would not have shewn me such things as these…
I know that I am a child, because He teaches me to say, ‘Abba, Father.’
I know that I am His, because He has enabled me to choose Him for mine. For such a choice and desire could never have taken place in my heart, if He had not placed it there Himself.
By nature I was too blind to know Him, too proud to trust Him, too obstinate to serve Him, too base-minded to love Him.
The enmity I was filled with against His government, His righteousness, and His grace, was too strong to be subdued by any power but His own.
The love I bear Him is but a faint and feeble spark, but it is an emanation from Himself. He kindled it, and He keeps it alive.
And because it is His work, I trust many waters shall not quench it.”
–John Newton, The Works of John Newton, Volume 1 (London: Hamilton, Adams & Co., 1824), 643-644. As quoted in Tony Reinke, Newton on the Christian Life: To Live Is Christ (Wheaton: Crossway, 2015), 235.
