Thinking Rightly About Our Sainthood

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.”—Eph. 2:19

I don’t know about you, but I struggle with this whole idea of being a saint.

First, I ain’t no saint. I don’t think, act, or speak like one. In fact, there have been periods in my life (in the last ten years!) where I felt so far from God that I have doubted my salvation.

Second, there’s something about all this talk about being a saint that smacks of too much self-interest. Should we even be thinking about this? At times, I almost wonder if it’s too worldly.

Yet if, as I pointed out in my last post, that being a saint is our primary identity, then how do we approach this? How do saints across the ages process and live out these truths?

Defining What Saints Are—And Aren’t

To help us think this through, we need to start with understanding what the Bible means by “saints.”

Literally, the word “saint” in the Bible is hagios, meaning “holy” or “set apart ones.” It is one who is sanctified for use by God.

So being a saint is being set apart from the general race of sinful humanity to be used for God’s purposes. It is not about our actions—or lack thereof.

This “setting apart” or sanctification is something God has decided from ages past. He has chosen to set us apart, to be holy (Eph. 1:4).

In short, it isn’t about our performance at all.

This is our first point of correction: shifting our focus of sainthood from our behavior or living like a saint to God’s work in setting us apart. As Melissa Kruger observes in her book, Identity Theft, “We often have a misguided notion that a saint is someone we eventually become after living a remarkable life.”

We are saints by God’s declaration, not our performance.

Saints Are In Process

Just think about it: look at the people the apostle Paul calls saints. In his opening verses to the churches in Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae—he calls them saints! And yet the rest of the epistle (check out his letters to the Corinthians in particular!), he is often found correcting them.

Being a saint isn’t about living a perfect life.

As I mentioned in my last post, there is only one perfect saint: Christ.

The rest of us are in process.

This process is called—not surprisingly—sanctification.

In systematic theology, this is divided into two types: instantaneous sanctification and progressive sanctification.

Past sanctification is instantaneous. Theologians also call this positional sanctification—a change at the very deepest levels of our being.

When we step in faith out to Christ, when we confess our sin and receive His pardon through the perfect blood of Christ, we are at that moment forgiven and justified. In that instant, we are set apart. Our record is made clean.

This act of faith accomplishes far more than we realize. In addition to being made clean with God, we become the righteousness of God because we are in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21). We are transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His Son (Col. 1:13). In Christ, we become sons of God through faith (Gal. 3:26).

When we welcome Him into our hearts, He comes to dwell with us (Rev. 3:20). We become a holy temple in which the Spirit now resides (1 Cor. 6:19).

Not only is He in us, we are in Him. When God looks at us, He sees Christ, the perfect saint. We who once were dead in sin are now made alive (Eph. 2:5). We are new creations (2 Cor. 5:17)!

I can go on and on, but all this—and more—happens the moment we humble ourselves to receive Christ. And it happens instantaneously. It is who we now are.

Likewise, future sanctification will also be instantaneous. Theologians also call this prospective sanctification. It is what will happen to complete the work He has begun in us (Phil. 1:6).

But in between the positional and the prospective, the past and the future, lies the present.

This is where we are today—and that is what is called progressive sanctification. It is the slow, painstaking process of transforming true saints into actual saints.

Like Moses, whose face shone after spending time in God’s presence, we too are transformed as we look to Christ. This sanctification happens one degree at a time (2 Cor. 3:18) as we fix our eyes on what is unseen and eternal.

For that reason, the Bible tells us to not lose heart (2 Cor. 4:16)! God is at work! And the tools He uses is often affliction and pain.

If you, like me, don’t often feel like saints, remember that it is not what we feel that makes us saints. It is what Christ has done.

Our standing is secure. Our destination is fixed.

In the meantime, He is working to close the gap between who we most truly are and how we actually live, every single day, every moment of our lives, even the most difficult, frustrating, or disappointing ones. He is at work in you and me.

We are saints, even if we don’t act like one.

Living as a Saint

While I will talk more about this in the next post, let me pave this discussion by looking at this: How is remembering that I am a saint different than the positive mindset thinking that is so prevalent today?

Well, one way it is hugely different is its starting point.

The worldview at large in this unredeemed world is that human beings are born good. This is an idea that began in the Enlightenment, but is completely contrary to Scripture.

In fact, the Bible states just the opposite. It makes it clear that we are all born sinful (Rom. 3:11-12). There is no one that does good, not even one (Ps. 14:3).

A saint actually acknowledges that fact and holds on to the truth that if I am a saint, it is not by my own doing, but by the gracious and loving work of our Savior.

True Christian self-esteem does not rest in my intrinsic worth—for there is none—or my noble deeds—for I cannot do any apart from Christ.

Rather, one test of whether or not we are on the right track comes as we look at our development in character. Am I becoming more humble, more aware of my sin? Am I “shrinking” as the Lord is “growing”?

This is more than promoting positive self-esteem or self-love. In fact, love for self in a true saint is not present at all.

Let’s face it. We don’t need to be taught to love ourselves. We will naturally protect ourselves, work to get what we want, what benefits us.

We don’t need to work at that.

But a saint will be characterized by two other loves: a growing love for God and a growing love for our neighbor—a love that is as passionate as our innate love of self.

A saint will grow in love of God and others over love of self.

Conclusion

You are a saint. I am a saint. Not by what I have done, but by what the perfect saint, Jesus Christ, has done on our behalf.

Our status in the family is secure, no matter what we do. Nothing can separate us from His love (Rom. 8:38, 39).

As this settles into our souls, we are then set free.

Free from enslavement to sin. Free from needing to prove our worth through our work. Free from people pleasing to gain crumbs of approval.

People who are saints live light. They have exchanged the burdens they carry for the light load Christ offers (Matt. 11:28-30).

This is true mental health, true self-esteem: knowing you are a saint. Not by my works, but firmly rooted in His.

Are you one?