Saint You & Me

It is very common to excuse or perhaps explain bad behavior by saying, "Well, I'm no saint."  We consider ourselves broken and tarnished vessels, prone to sin due to our weak and fragile spiritual condition. Most of us would be loathed to call ourselves holy or sanctified because we know ourselves all too well. 

And, if our holiness or saint status was dependent on our ability to always think, say and do the godly thing or if we were the source and power of our sanctification, we would be right. We are weak and we, like the apostle Paul, "have the desire to do what is good but cannot carry it out" (Rom 7:18).

But equally like the apostle, Christ's "power is made perfect in our weakness" (2 Cor 12:9).  For it is the Spirit of Christ, not us who is the source of our sanctification, our holiness our status as saints: we are "saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit" (2 Thess 2:13).  

I used to regard myself as a sinner saved by grace but the truth is that I was a sinner saved by grace and I am now a saint sanctified by grace. Because I walk in His light, "the blood of Jesus [continously] cleanses me from my sin" (1 John 1:7).  I, like Paul, struggle with my flesh but also like him am not defined by my struggle but by Christ's victory on the cross. 

As hard as it may be to accept at times, the Bible clearly refers to Christians as "those sanctified in Christ Jesus" (1 Cor 1:2).  If you are in Christ, you are a saint. Do not let your weakness define you, rather allow His power to define who and what you are. Do not listen to the Great Liar, listen instead to the Word of Truth: "Sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth" (John17:17).  

Jus' Sayn.