Every once in a while we hear someone call another person “a saint”. They may be referring to someone they know who does a lot of good deeds, or perhaps they know someone who is putting up with and enduring some great hardship. Some Christian denominations formally recognize some special, deceased people who lived especially good and holy lives. We know and honor them as Saint this or that, St. Francis, St. Therese, and many others. In our Scripture today from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, we read something that might surprise us. Let’s take a look.
Just as Paul does in all of his epistles, he begins this letter with a special greeting to the believers in the church he is writing to. Here in his introduction to his letter to the church in Corinth, Paul calls the church members, the believers here saints (vs. 2). The church in Corinth was a large one compared with other churches of the time, made up of a wide variety of people, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, and from a wide variety of backgrounds. The Corinthian church also had several problems among its members, which the Apostle confronted in his letters to them, including some very grave sins. Yet, here Paul is, addressing his letter to the church membership by calling them saints. From what we read about what some of these members were doing, we would think they were anything but saints!
Our word saint derives from the Latin word sanctus, which means holy, or sanctified. When something is sanctified, it is specially set apart for God’s purpose and use. Paul addressed his letter to the saints at the Church in Corinth, to those who had accepted the Lord Jesus as their Savior, and because of that they were sanctified in Christ Jesus, set apart for God’s purpose and use. Even though many of these believers had some serious problems and troubles, they were still clothed in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus, and were holy, sanctus, or saints.
As Paul continues his epistle, he tells these saints in Corinth that when the Lord returns, they will be presented to him “blameless” (vs. 8). That is, these believers will not be called into account for their past sins, they will not be reproved or accused. How can they, or we, ever be blameless before God? I know that I have plenty of sins that I have committed, all throughout my life. We all do, so how could we possibly be blameless before the Lord? The answer to that is only through the Lord Jesus Christ.
When Jesus died upon the cross of Calvary, He paid the penalty for the sins of the world, for your sins and mine. When we accept Him as our personal Savior, the penalty for all of our sins, every last one of them, is marked “paid in full”. Jesus took the penalty for our sins, and we are clothed in His righteousness. Thus we are able to stand blameless before the Lord. As Paul stated in his letter to the Romans, believers will not be condemned when they stand before the Lord (Romans 8:1). There will be no condemning sentence passed down upon us because of what Jesus did for us at Calvary.
If you have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, then you too, are a saint. We may not feel very saintly some days, and our day to day lives may never reach the sanctity that some have, those who have been officially canonized. However, when God looks at us, He sees us through His Son Jesus, and that is as a Blood-bought, sanctified believer.
Here in our lives, here and now, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to work in and through us, to make us more each day into the image and likeness of the Lord Jesus. We can seek to allow Him to live His life through us, where, when people look at us, they see Jesus shining through us in our actions and speech. God calls us saints. Let’s strive to reflect that in our actions.
No comments:
Post a Comment