In this episode, I am continuing our series entitled “Walking in Grace and True Identity”. In the previous episode, we talked about our identity in Christ, and I left you with this thought:
If, as a follower of Christ, I truly have all of the family traits of a born-again believer, then why don’t I always act like who I really am? The answer is simple: I am believing a lie.
Today I will answer the obvious next question: What is the lie? At the core of my being, I am nothing more than a rotten sinner. That is a lie!
The truth is this: You are not just a sinner saved by grace. You are a saint who has the life of Christ at the center of your being.
2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (Application: When we are born again, we become a new creation. God’s spirit does not merely take up residence beside our spirit. Our spirit is transformed into a “new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Salvation is not addition. It is transformation.)
Now, I understand the intent of those who refer to believers as “sinners saved by grace.” Yet I would like to suggest a more biblically correct terminology, and then explain why the terminology is important.
“Saints who sin” is a more biblically accurate description of believers than “sinners saved by grace.”
Saints who sin = our current identity. After our new birth, we are saints.Sinners saved by grace = our former identity. Prior to our new birth, we were sinners.
Listen carefully to this verse:
2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV For our sake He [God] made Him [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him [Christ] we might become the righteousness of God.
Christ did much more than merely bear our sins so that we could be forgiven. He actually became sin for our sake, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
The New Testament refers to Christians as saints 63 times. If you have trusted in Jesus, then you were a sinner… but now you are a saint!
Please note that God is not saying that our behavior is righteous. God is saying that we are righteous. Our behavior is progressively transformed, as we renew our minds to the truth about our new identity.
Here is a quote from Classic Christianity by Bob George: “If you were to see a butterfly, it would never occur to you to say, ‘Hey, everybody! Come look at this good-looking converted worm!’ Why not? After all, it was a worm. And it was ‘converted.’ No, now it is a new creature, and you don’t think of it in terms of what it was. You see it as it is now—a butterfly. In exactly the same way, God sees you as His new creature in Christ. Although you might not always act like a good butterfly — you might land on things you shouldn’t, or forget you are a butterfly and crawl around with your old worm buddies —but the truth of the matter is, you are never going to be a worm again!“
Why is it important to view ourselves as saints rather than sinners? Two reasons. First, if we describe ourselves as sinners, we are ignoring our true identity in Christ. The best way to become more and more like Jesus is to remember our true identity (as a saint) whenever we are faced with a temptation. When tempted, our growing awareness of our true identity in Christ will make it progressively easier to say, “That behavior (or that thought pattern) is not consistent with who I am in Christ,” and then to reject the temptation. If we see ourselves as a child of God who is spiritually alive in Christ, we will begin to live accordingly.
Let me be clear about the biblical description of believers as saints:
“Saint” describes our position in Christ, and not necessarily our maturity in Christ.Viewing ourselves as saints does not deny our struggle with sin.Being a follower of Jesus is not just a matter of getting something. It is a matter of being someone.We are saints by calling, not saints by earning that title.
Secondly, viewing ourselves as saints gives us hope:
2 Peter 1:4 HCSB By these He has given us very great and precious promises, so that through [these promises] you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desires.
What is this hope? It is the bright hope that you are a child of God right now (not just when you get to heaven), and in Christ you are being progressively conformed to the image and likeness of God. The believer who has this hope “purifies himself” (1 John 3:3), begins to share in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), and begins to live according to who he or she really is.
But since I still sin, are there two natures at war within me: my old nature and my new nature? The answer, of course, is in the next episode! 😊
Today, I encourage you to “Reflect on This.”