Are
You a Saint?
In His great priestly prayer Jesus was praying for His
disciples, present and future. He said to His Father, “And for their sakes I sanctify
Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth” (John 17:19).
Did Jesus mean that He wished to become holier? Was He praying for
sinless perfection? Of course, not, that would have been impossible for the infinitely
holy One to become holier. He was already perfectly holy.
Jesus was using the correct definition of the word saint. Jesus was
setting Himself apart to the task of making atonement for our sins on the cross so we
could become set apart for God. A saint is one who is “set apart” for God’s
unique possession and purposes. The setting apart as a saint is something God does apart
from human endeavor.
The person who believes on Jesus Christ is set apart when God reaches
down in His grace and mercy through the person and work of the Holy Spirit, regenerates
him spiritually and sets him apart for His own possession.
One of the great truths of the reformation is, “Every Christian
is a saint, and every saint is a Christian.”
Every born again believer in Christ is set apart from the world
system and no longer belongs to its way of life. The believer has a new principle, new
nature, new kingdom, new master, new loyalties, new purpose and new agenda in life.
“All Christians are saints, and all saints must increasingly be
saintly.” Because of this new principle in life, the saint will become progressively
more and more like His Lord and Master Jesus Christ. The new nature will produce a new
kind of life.
Moreover, because you are a “saint” you will continue to
grow in your steadfast commitment to Christ. You will persevere in the Christian life. You
will persevere because of the perseverance of God with His saints. You will be able to
stand firm to the end because God is faithful to His saints to the end. Because He
perseveres with us we must persevere. We must be faithful because He is faithful.
How is all this possible? How can we who are weak and feeble
spiritually be saintly?
It is because you are “in Christ” and He is “in
you.” Christ cannot dwell in someone who is not set apart to Him. The saint has been
joined to Christ in one spiritual body so that what is true of Christ is also true of the
saint.
We now live and walk and have our being in a whole new spiritual
environment. The apostle Paul says Christ has “raised us up with Him, and seated us
with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6). That is what it means to
be a saint. He has set us apart to be with Himself in His holy presence.
We have this vital union with Christ that is unchanging. It is the
very essence of our salvation.
Apart from Christ our spiritual condition is
absolutely hopeless. However, in Him our spiritual life is glorious to
the extreme.
Our sainthood gets eternity into the picture. It changes our attitude
toward our current circumstances in life.
God gives us grace and power each day to be the kind of people He
wants us to be. There is no other means of living the life of a saint. The source of our
new life is in the election of God the Father before the foundation of the world.
Moreover, the fruit of this new life is the glorification as the full-grown child of God.
Are you enjoying your sainthood?
How is your practice as a saint of God?
From whence do you draw your strength to live like a saint?
How then shall we live since God has set us apart to Himself?
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
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