November 1, 2007

• All Saints' Day: Who Are the Saints?

  When you hear the word "Saint" what do you think of?

  Mother Teresa?

  When the Saints Go Marching In?

  The New Orleans Saints?

  Nate Saint?

  Susan Saint James?

  St. James Place?

  Some very old devout religious person with white hair?

  A martyr for the faith?

  Christians often think of "saints" as super-sanctified Christians or a group of elite Christians or perhaps those who have been martyred for their faith, but throughout the Bible we find the word "saint" is used to describe ordinary everyday believers, folks like you and me. (Remember how God uses the weak, base and foolish things of this world!) The apostle Paul begins many of his letters by greeting and blessing the "saints."

  The word translated "saints" in the New Testament is hagios meaning "sacred (physically, pure, morally blameless or religious, ceremonially, consecrated):--(most) holy (one, thing), saint."(1)  Hagios "fundamentally signifies 'separated' (among the Greeks, dedicated to the gods), and hence, in Scripture in its moral and spiritual significance, separated from sin and therefore consecrated to God, sacred."(2)  Everyone who has saving faith in Jesus Christ has been "separated from sin and therefore consecrated to God, sacred." We have been bought with a price, the blood of Jesus, hence we are no longer our own but God's, and we are no longer to live to ourselves or to sin but to God (cf. I Cor. 6:19-20, II Cor. 5:14-15; Romans 6:1-8:17).

  We are not saints because of any inherent holiness or goodness. We are not saints because we have born into a Christian home. We are not saints because of our good works. We are not saints because of our doctrine. We are not saints because of our religious observances. We cannot make ourselves saints no matter how hard we try. Just as a dead man cannot bring himself to life again, those dead in sin cannot bring themselves back to life. We were raised from the dead and were made saints only through the rich mercies of a loving God who breathed His life into us. "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." (See Ephesians 2:1-10.)  We became saints through the work of the Holy Spirit, without whom we could not even see the Kingdom of God, much less enter it. And we remain in the Kingdom of God only by the keeping power of God.

  We are saints justified through the cross of Jesus Christ by the mercies of our Holy God for His glory.

  We are saints being sanctified through the cross of Jesus Christ by the mercies of our Holy God for His glory.

  But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: 31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
  

  -I Corinthians 1:30-31, KJV

  O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave:
  thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
  Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of his,
  and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness
  Psalm 30:3-4

  All you saints, glory in the Lord!

  
  

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  (1) James Strong, Strong's Greek Bible Dictionary, "Strong's Exhaustive Concordance" 1890. MacSword.

  (2) W. E. Vine, "Holiness, Holy, Holily," Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words. Blue Letter Bible. 1940. 1 Apr 2007. 1 Nov 2007.
  Blue Letter Bible Search "Holiness, Holy, Holily" Vine's

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