You Are A Saint: Colossians 1:2
You Are A Saint
(Colossians 1:2)
FILL IN THE BLANK
You are a saint. Fill in the blank.
Saint _____________________________ (your name).
I am able to say, “Saint Richard Bustraan.” For some people this sounds audacious. It sounds as though you are placing yourself on a pedestal alongside other people in church history who have proven themselves to be notable and a cut above the rest of us common folks.
Christian saints are alive today. They are walking the earth in human bodies. They are common people like you and me. The saints are the holy ones who believe in Jesus. What a blessed status.
The way you see yourself will change your life. The Bible says you are a saint. See our self this way. Embrace the name. Saint ___________________.
LITTLE GODS | BODHISATTVAS | HOLY PEOPLE
Many of us would think that a saint is someone who is a cut above the rest os us. They lived years ago in history. They accomplished some heroic acts of faith and sometime after their death, the church exalted their name to the status of saint. These individuals become little bodhisattvas, gods, holy people, people who live in the heavens and can pray on our behalf. They become intermediaries between God the Father, Jesus and common sinners like you and me. Lose something, there is a saint to pray to to help you find it. Need to get married, there is a saint for that. Failing in business, there is a saint for that. This misconception, however, was never taught by the apostles.
WHAT IS A SAINT
THE WORD SAINT
The word saint means “holy one.” In Greek in reads τοῖς ἁγίοις (tois hagios). Translated it means “the holy” or “the holy ones.”
THEOLICALLY
Theologically it means that God is the one who makes people holy. Any person who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ is made holy by God. God declares that they are holy. This declaration takes place in a moment in time. God decides at one moment in time to see a person as holy. He no longer sees them with any sin. He sees them as perfect and set apart from the rest of the world.
JUSTIFICATION
Justification is a word used by the Apostle Paul. It means that God drops all the charges that he could bring against a person. He will no longer judge them for their sins. He no longer sees them as a sinner. He declares that this person is perfect. He declares this person is holy. He as a saint. He calls them a saint. The person who is justified by God, is a saint. This is the backbone of the Apostle Paul’s teaching. (Read Romans 1-8).
God justifies all people who believe in him. Anyone who believes is a saint. God does not consider them to be a sinner.
ACCEPTED
Now that you believe, you are a saint. You are declared to be holy, perfect and set apart for God. You are accepted by him. You are no longer an outsider. You are no longer rejected. You are part of his family. You are one of his own. He is not ashamed to call you his own. He calls you one of his holy ones, one of his saints.
SAINTS WERE LIVING
The Apostles addressed the living believers in the town of Colossae as saints. He used the same greeting and calls other believers in other towns saints. For example, see (Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:2, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Ephesians 1:1, Philippians 1:1). In Acts 9:13, the believers were also called saints. So, these were not dead people. These were living people. They were not special people. They were people with many troubles and problems, but they were God’s holy people. But they were people that God had declared to be saints.
CHANGE YOU DESTINY
If you continue to see yourself as a rejected and dirty, if you continue to feel the shame of your evil life, you are never going to understand that you are a saint. You need to enjoy the freedom that God has given you. If you do not feel like you are a saint, it doesn’t change the fact that you are a saint. You need to say what God says is true about you. You are a saint, in Jesus Christ.
Watch how different your entire life becomes when you start each day with the thankful prayer that God has made you a saint. It will begin to help you embrace what is true. It will begin to change the way you think about yourself. It will allow the way you see yourself to align with what God says about you. You will begin to walk in the truth and take on this incredibly high status that God himself has given you.
YOU ARE HUMBLE
Who do you think you are? Who are you, to call yourself a saint? Many think it sounds proud to call yourself a saint. It appears that you are trying to place yourself on the same level as people who were much greater than you.
But actually, to call yourself a saint means that you are admitting that God himself has made you holy. You are not saying that you have made yourself perfect. It is a humble statement to make about yourself. It means that you are admitting that you once were a sinner. You are not self made. You are God made. This humility comes out of the label that God has given you. He has made you a saint.
EMBRACE IT
Perhaps you feel a sense of trespass or dread. Perhaps a lightening bolt will flash from the heavens and zap you if someone as dirty and common as yourself were to embrace such an exalted title. But you should not feel this way. If God says you are holy, then you are holy. If God calls you a saint, then you should not be afraid to call yourself as a saint.
