{"id":90735,"date":"2021-03-11T21:02:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T02:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/the-saint\/"},"modified":"2023-10-07T23:11:37","modified_gmt":"2023-10-08T03:11:37","slug":"the-saint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/the-saint\/","title":{"rendered":"The Saint"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">1 Corinthians 1:2: Unto the church\nof God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in\nChrist Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the\nname of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Many Christians are experiencing an identity crisis. They know they\u2019re saved, but they don\u2019t really know what to think about themselves. Let\u2019s take a little test: do you consider yourself a sinner saved by grace or a saint who occasionally sins? Both statements are true, but the first one dwells on your past identity, whereas the second focuses on the Lord\u2019s perception of you.\u00a0So, what is a saint?\u00a0What are the characteristics of sainthood?\u00a0To determine the Biblical answers, we look to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\n<li>Historical Context:\u00a0 Written in approximately A. D. 55, 1 Corinthians 1:1 identifies the author of the Book of 1 Corinthians as the apostle Paul who founded the church in Corinth. A few years after leaving the church, Paul heard some disturbing reports about the Corinthian church including they were full of pride, excusing sexual immorality, spiritual gifts were being used improperly and there was rampant misunderstanding of key Christian doctrines. Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians in an attempt to restore the Corinthian church to its foundation\u2014Jesus Christ.\u00a0Paul wasted no time in that by the second verse, despite the condition of the church, he purposefully and appropriately calls them (and reminds them) that they are, in fact, \u201csaints\u201d preciously because of their position in Jesus Christ.\u00a0Clearly they have sinned, but just as clearly they are still saints.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\n<li>Grammatical Usage: \u201c<strong>The church of God\u201d or in the Greek, \u201c<\/strong><strong>th ekklhsiai tou qeou\u201d literally\nmeans, \u201c<\/strong>Belonging to God\u201d as\nopposed to any individual or faction, as this genitive case shows; \u201c<strong>That are\nsanctified\u201d or, \u201c<\/strong><strong>hgiasmenoi\u201d\n<\/strong>which is the perfect passive\nparticiple of <strong>agiazw<\/strong>, late form for <strong>agizw<\/strong>,\nmeaning, \u201cto make or to declare cleansed\/pure\/dedicated\u201d; \u201c<strong>called saints\u201d or\n\u201c<\/strong><strong>klhtoi agioi<\/strong>\u201d as opposed\nto \u201ccalled <em>to be<\/em> saints\u201d which\nis an English mistranslation incongruent with \u201chgiasmenoi\u201d, <strong>saint<\/strong> or \u201c<strong>hagios<\/strong>\u201d literally meaning, \u201cmost holy; holy one\u201d <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\n<li>Literal Application:\u00a0Unto the church which belongs to God at Corinth, to them that are declared pure in Christ Jesus, most holy, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their&#8217;s and our&#8217;s<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\n<li>Contextual\nInterpretation: If you are a believer,\nGod\u2019s Word affirms that you are a saint (v. 2). But too many of us still see\nourselves as the same old sinner, who\u2019s been forgiven and patched up and yet is\nbasically unchanged inside. But the Lord says anyone in Christ \u201cis a new\ncreature; the old things passed away\u201d (2 Cor. 5:17). That\u2019s what being born\nagain is all about. We can never go back to the way we were.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The solution to this identity crisis is to align our hearts and thinking with the conviction of Scripture.\u00a0If we don\u2019t, we\u2019ll rely on how we feel, and Satan will bombard us with reminders of our failures and sins. Satan wants to keep us focused on being a sinner, because he knows that the recognition of our sainthood will lead us to live like saints. We\u2019ll be motivated and empowered to obey God, and the Devil will lose his foothold in our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\n<li>Scriptural Comparison:\u00a0Christians are both sinners and saints. All human beings are sinners because we are born in sin. But not all humans are saints. According to the Bible, a saint is not someone who has done wonderful things, nor is it someone who has been deemed a saint by a church or organization. The word translated \u201csaint\u201d in the New Testament, <em>hagios<\/em>, means literally \u201csacred, physically pure; morally blameless or religious; ceremonially consecrated; a holy one.\u201d In the context of New Testament passages, saints are those who belong to the body of Christ, saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). In other words, \u201csaint\u201d is another word for a Christian, a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.<br> <br>It is a clear biblical truth that all are born in sin and all have a sin nature. Scripture says that God created humankind originally good and without a sin nature: &#8220;Then God said, \u2018Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness\u2019. . . . God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them\u201d (Genesis 7:26-27). However, Genesis chapter 3 records the fall of Adam and Eve, and with that fall, sin entered into the two previously sinless creatures. And when they, in turn, had children, their sin nature was passed along to their offspring. Thus, every human being is a sinner.<br> <br>Saints, on the other hand, are not born saints; they become saints by being <em>re<\/em>born. Because we have all \u201csinned and fallen short of the glory of God,\u201d (Romans 3:23), we are all in need of spiritual rebirth, without which we will continue in our sinful state throughout eternity. But God, in His great mercy and grace, has provided the (only) means for turning a sinner into a saint\u2014the Lord Jesus Christ, who came \u201cto give His life as a ransom for many.\u201d When we confess our need for a Savior from sin and accept His sacrifice on the cross on our behalf, we become saints.<br> <br>There is no hierarchy of saints. All who belong to Christ by faith are saints, and none of us is more \u201csaintly\u201d than our Christian brothers and sisters. The Apostle Paul, who is no more of a saint than the most obscure Christian, begins his first letter to the Corinthian church by declaring that they were \u201csanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be saints, together with <em>all those who in every place<\/em> call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ\u201d (1 Corinthians 1:2, emphasis added). In this verse, <em>hagios<\/em> is translated \u201csaints,\u201d \u201choly,\u201d and \u201csanctified\u201d in different Bible versions, leading to the unmistakable conclusion that all who have ever called upon Christ for salvation are saints, made holy by the Lord. We are all \u201cfellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God\u201d (Ephesians 2:19).<br> <br>We are not saints because we have been declared to be saints by a church, nor can we work our way to sainthood. Once we are saved by faith, however, we are called to certain actions befitting our calling as saints of God. \u201cBut just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: \u2018Be holy, because I am holy\u2019&#8221; (1 Peter 1:15-16). <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Saints are not sinless, but the lives of saints do\nreflect the reality of the presence of Christ in our hearts, in whom we \u201clive\nand move and have our being\u201d (Acts 17:28).&nbsp;\nChristians continue to sin after they are saved \u2013 we will not be\ncompletely free from sin until we die or Jesus comes back. However, becoming a\nChristian results in a changed life (2 Corinthians 5:17). A person will go from\nproducing the acts of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21) to displaying the fruits of\nthe Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), as the indwelling Holy Spirit has more and more\ncontrol over his life.&nbsp; The difference\nbetween a sinning unbeliever and a sinning believer is that one loves his sin\nwhile the other hates it. The believer who stumbles in his walk with the Lord\nregrets it, confesses it, wishes to never do it again and seeks to appropriate\nGod\u2019s power and grace to avoid it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\n<li>Conclusion:\nJesus didn\u2019t come just to save you from hell; He wants to live His life through\nyou. In Christ, you have a new identity which has replaced your old one. If you\nwill focus on who you are now, study the Scriptures as to what the Holy Spirit\ndoes to us and for us (supplement: Commands to Believers) your actions will\nfollow and in and through the transformation process you\u2019ll experience the\nenjoyment of a victorious Christian life.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1 Corinthians 1:2: Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours: Many Christians are experiencing an identity crisis. They know they\u2019re saved, but [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[526,534],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Saint - Grace Evangelical Free Church<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Saint - Grace Evangelical Free Church\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"1 Corinthians 1:2: Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours: Many Christians are experiencing an identity crisis. 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