Are You A Saint?
1 Corinthians 1:2
To those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.
Are you a saint? Do you know that the word saint comes from the Latin word “sānctus” which means holy or sacred? Dictionary.com gives the primary meaning of sacred as devoted or dedicated to a deity or to some religious purpose; consecrated. Does this make you think of the Pope? Mother Teresa?
But 1 Corinthians 1:2 doesn’t seem to be talking about just a few select people who were canonized by the Roman Catholic Church, does it? Let’s read it again: “To those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.” This says you and I as Christians are already saints since we have been sanctified in Christ Jesus. We are called to devotion to Jesus Christ and His purposes. It does not say we have earned our sainthood by good works, but by our calling.
The word saint is used in the Bible, referring to ordinary, everyday believers like you and I. Our scriptural identity is often misunderstood. I learned as a child that I was a sinner (saved by grace – yes, alright – but a sinner). Have you learned to view yourself as a sinner too? God does not call me a sinner. God calls me a saint: a holy one. Even though I learned to view myself as a sinner – that did not change the way God sees me. The same holds true for you.
Now: the Bible says that as saints, we are in Christ Jesus. And being in Christ Jesus is a major part of our scriptural identity. God sees us as saints: holy ones in Christ Jesus: through the cleansing blood of Jesus.
If you view yourself as a sinner you’ll see yourself living in sin. Sin is anything that separates us from God and that’s not a good place to be living. Rather than that, view yourself for who you really are: a saint living in Christ Jesus who cleanses you from all your iniquity.
Our sermons help you live this out. They help you learn to appropriate the gift of God’s word: to take possession of the Word of Truth for yourself. You will grow closer to go to God, learning to go to His word for comfort, guidance, correction and instruction. As you live for God and His purposes you will grow in the knowledge of who you are in Christ and how to live victoriously in Christ Jesus as James tells us in chapter 1:17-18.
17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. ~Ephesians 3:20-21~