1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed on me was not in vain… Two or three years before the death of the Rev. John Newton, an aged brother in the ministry called on him to breakfast. Family prayer followed; and the portion of Scripture for the day was read to him. In it occurred the verse, "By the grace of Goal I am what I am." After the reading of this text, he uttered this affecting soliloquy: "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, shall I 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.'" Parallel Verses KJV: But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. |
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