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)

Paul writes to the Roman believers and says two important things about them.  They are beloved of God and called to be saints. Because I was brought up Catholic, to me a saint was someone special in God. Saints had to be dead to be canonized or declared holy with the evidence of miraculous works done in their name. But Paul is writing to living persons.  The word “called” in Greek means appointed and invited to be saints. Does that mean that when they die they will be saints? This and other questions have to be answered to fully understand the Gospel.

First Paul calls all believers in Rome “beloved of God.”  Later in chapter 9, Paul refers to the prophecy of Hosea 2:23, “And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.” (Hosea 2:23) Hosea is talking about those who are not Jewish, but believers.  Paul was great at making the connection from the Old Testament to the New Testament. He was well studied in the Scriptures. The New Testament believers, including us, who are not Jewish, are the beloved that Hosea is talking about. We were not God’s people, but enemies of God. “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” (Romans 5:10) From the beginning God had us in mind to have mercy on us and has made us part of His people. The Romans were God’s beloved.  And we are His beloved also.

“...called to be saints,” refers not to the future, as in our future death, but to the past. Since the beginning God was thinking about all the people in the world who did not have the oracles of the One True God, Jehovah, known as Yahweh to the Jews. And He destined all who would believe to be saints, holy.  All that God makes is holy and pure. Our born-again human spirit is born of God, pure and holy, without sin and connected to God, although we still live in this flesh and struggle with the flesh.  The human spirit not born again doesn’t have that struggle.  They act in the flesh and not the spirit. We struggle in the spirit because the flesh wants to follow the way of the world, but our human reborn of God spirit in communion with the indwelling Holy Spirit wants to follow the Holy Spirit, God’s Way, Jesus. So as long as we’re struggling, it’s a comfort that the Holy Spirit is indwelling and evidence of the reborn of God human spirit. We are saints still in the process of sanctification. We will be in this process as long as we are here on earth. Whereas those believers, Old Testament who believed and waited for the Messiah and those of the New Testament who have gone before us are sanctified completely now in heaven. They are sanctified wholly because they are without their earthly flesh.  They are not in this sinful world and are in heaven where there is no sin.

Paul made a point specifically and intentionally to use that phrase and similar greetings to address the different churches in Asia. To the Corinthians he writes, “ 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:” (1Corinthians 1:2). In 2Corintians, Paul again refers to believers as saints. “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia:” (2Corinthians 1:1) He greets the believers in Philippi the same way. “Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:(Philippians 1:1) And the same is true of his greeting to the believers in Colossae (Colossians 1:2). Paul and other apostles made many references to the believers as saints.

But we have no right of pride in being saints.  We have nothing to do with it. “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.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) We are holy and pure because of the Lord’s mercy. (Hosea 2:23) And because of His mercy toward us, He opened our spiritual eyes of understanding which allowed us to come to know His Gospel and His love toward us. We came to understand that we were sinners apart from God and that we were in need of a Savior. And we believed and trusted in His work of salvation and the Word of salvation. And it may sound prideful to say we are saints, but it’s not because we know it’s not because of anything we did. So we are holy and pure and worthy to be called saints, not on our account, but because the Savior’s work on the cross is holy and worthy.  And His mercy brought us in and gathered us in Christ Who is worthy.