Monday, June 23, 2014

Odd Thoughts on Sainthood

     Did I say this already?  There is no "saint" in Scripture.  The word "saint" does not appear. It is never singular, only plural--"the saints."
     This is a very freeing realization.  I am not a saint, and neither are you, even though you are a believer and the most committed, patient, loving, and forgiving person on earth. Neither is "St. Paul," regardless of what church history has called him. 
     But Paul and you and I, as believers, are among the saints. 
     According to Scripture, the body of believers is the collection of "saints," those who have been "sanctified" by the blood of Christ (gruesome as that always sounds--and is).  Those who believe in Christ have joined that body of sanctified ones.  It is not by anything we individually have done. (It is grace, not works, that saves us, of course; we know that.) Not a one of us is a saint by ourselves, but together we are those who have been "sainted" by the work of Christ himself.
     That doesn't mean that we don't have good works to do, or that we can "continue in sin that grace may abound."  That is not what I mean.  All I wish to point out is that we are not being exactly biblical when we use "saint" individually.  Paul himself struggled with sin just as much as the rest of us, as his letters make clear.  
     When we get caught up in calling individuals "saint," we can get off the track in at least two ways.  One, we think that these individuals really were perfect (they weren't), and two, thinking that we can never measure up to them, we use them as an excuse for our own mediocrity.
     Instead of cruising down those errant paths, we need to recognize that we, the body of Christ, are in this together.  There is no other saint out there to do the work for us, or to cover for us--only Jesus, "the author and finisher of our faith."  And we are--all of us, from Peter to Paul to Mary to Augustine to Jerome, to your favorite Sunday school teacher--His body, a body made saintly by Him.
     The question is not how I can make myself into a saint, but how I can function best as a part of the body.

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