Those of us who follow Jesus, who are on the journey of faith with Him because we have confessed Him as Lord, commonly refer to ourselves as Christian, that is one belonging to or of the same quality as Christ. This is certainly a vivid term to describe believers, but interestingly that name is found only three times in scripture (Acts 11:26 and 26:28; 1 Peter 4:16). The word of choice used by Christ’s disciples about themselves is “saint” and is used 45 times in the New Testament, mostly by Paul.
    This term literally means “holy one” What could these authors (and God) be thinking to refer to regular church people as “saints”? Well the problem is that we have changed this designation to narrowly refer to only “outstanding” Christians, or in some circles, only those who have achieved to a specific spiritual “hall of fame.” But here’s the surprise. God refers to EVERY believer as a saint! What? Has God looked at the members of this church lately? Has He looked into our hearts? Well of course He has, and He still means it when He calls us His saints. See, the problem isn’t in the definition of the word, but in our misunderstanding that our being designated as one of God’s saints has anything to do with us!
    Eugene Peterson (mostly known for his Bible translation The Message) explains this concept in his most recent book Practice Resurrection (a study on Ephesians). Of the word “saint”, says Peterson, Paul deliberately chooses a word that identifies us by what God does in and for us, not what we do for God. Because we are saved by grace, not our own good works, it is God who makes us His saints by His holiness, not we who achieve sainthood by our actions. This holiness does not refer to who we are in ourselves, but who we are in Christ; not what we do for God but what God does for us.
    Thus God calls us by a name that looks beyond our present, sinful, condition, to how He sees us at the end of the process, what He is making of us by the redemptive act of Jesus on the cross. This term is about His action in us through His Holy Spirit to transform us INTO the image of Christ. From God’s perspective we already ARE holy because He has made us holy in Jesus! God sees us today as what we are becoming in Him, not who we are on our own. By calling us into relationship with Himself God sets us apart from the world, and sets us as part of who He is. As the apostle Peter said Just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do, for it is written “Be holy, because I am holy” (1 Peter 1:15-16). We can believe God when He calls us His saints, not because we ignore our short-comings or are deceiving ourselves into thinking we are better than we really are, but because we can see ourselves as God sees us. And this, paradoxically, sets us free to live up to God’s calling us “saints.”
And one more interesting point—the term “saint” in the Bible is always used in the plural. Apparently this holiness is also connected to who we are in relationship with all others whom God calls as His own. We are made holy (saved) individually, but develop this holiness, our saintliness, cooperatively with other believers. God calls us His saints, His holy ones, and brings us together as His Church (also a plural term meaning called out ones). Not only should we see ourselves as He sees us, but we must also see all other believers as He sees them! Just imagine how His Church (and this congregation) would be transformed if we honored each other as the saints God has called us to be?
In Christ you and I are saints! Do you believe Him?
 

Denis Whittet