Saints

“To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 1:7)

This is part of Paul’s greeting to the believers in Rome. We tend to think of the apostles and those who walked with Jesus as “special” people. They’re depicted in pictures with a halo, the same as Jesus. They had such deep knowledge of the Scriptures and wrote the Gospels. Paul wrote most of the New Testament. And in the end, they all received martyrdom for the Name of Jesus. Surely, they were holy.

When we look at their personal lives, we see they were ordinary people. The apostles were fishermen and uneducated, except for Luke and Matthew. Paul was educated as a Pharisee. In reading the Gospels we see they experienced fear, doubt, and anxiety. They were struck with illnesses, the same as we are and had the same concerns with provision, what to eat and where to eat.

We begin to see a difference in their speech and boldness in their actions in Acts after Pentecost and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Peter who had acted as a coward, not wanting to be associated with Jesus, was emboldened and preached to a crowd of over 3,000 in Jerusalem and preached again at Solomon’s Portico about Jesus. (Acts 2:1-41 & Acts 3:11-26) The apostles preached Jesus and healed in the streets of Jerusalem even after they were called in and arrested by the Council and told not to preach. Again, Peter speaks up with boldness. (Acts 4:1-20) “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13)

We see that the apostles were no more special than we are. But they had spent time with Jesus. The Council could tell because of the way they spoke. And they were emboldened by the Holy Spirit. We have the same option given to us. We can spend more time with Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit to embolden us and to baptize us with power.

Now returning to Paul’s salutation to the believers in Rome, “called to be saints,” we deduce that believers are called to be saints. What is the definition of a saint? According to Merriam-Webster, a saint is “one officially recognized especially through canonization as preeminent for holiness,” “one of the spirits of the departed in heaven,” “one of God's chosen and usually Christian people” and “one eminent for piety or virtue.” This is the world’s definition. The word Paul used is “hagios” in Greek. It means “physically pure, morally blameless or religious, ceremonially consecrated.” Paul applied it to the believers in Rome. Paul has it right. We are washed by the Blood of the Lamb and made pure physically and blameless before God. Jesus took all our moral and physical impurity and sin AWAY so that we could be spotless before the Father, so that we could be accepted by the Father and so that we could be one with Him and the Father.

Verse 6 tells us we are called by Jesus to be saints. As believers we are ceremonially consecrated by Jesus when He gave us the Holy Spirit to dwell in us and to seal us. The Lord put His seal of approval destined for eternal life with the Holy Spirit. “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory.” (Ephesians 1:13-14) Jesus put His stamp or evidence to the whole universe that we are His. It’s the Holy Spirit living in us. It’s not just a sign. It’s a taste of the wisdom and the power from heaven.

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen. The second epistle to the Corinthians was written from Philippi, a city of Macedonia, by Titus and Lucas.” (2Corinthians 13:14) Don’t get confused by the end of that Scripture. 2 Corinthians was written by Paul but transcribed by Titus and Lucas who carried the letter to the church in Corinth. If we learn to depend on the Holy Spirit, which is a little difficult here on earth with all of the distractions, we will live supernatural powerful lives here on earth. In his last letter to the Corinthians, Paul encourages the believers to have communion with the Holy Spirit. He is in us. He walks with us. He goes wherever we go. He hears everything that comes out of our mouths. And He knows the thoughts we are thinking. More than that, as one with Him, Jesus and the Father, it makes me tremble to think that He was present in my worse unholy times. Yet, we are saints in God’s eyes. We are saints in heaven already, knowing God sees the end from the beginning. “Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure:” (Isaiah 46:9-10)