Today is “All Saints’ Sunday” and the joyful reality that, along with those believers of the past, through faith in Jesus, we too are God’s saints!
That is amazing news; but it is also tough new. Challenging news. News that is impossible to believe.
Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.
1 John 3:2
At least, if we’re honest with ourselves.
Because we know what a saint is (or is supposed to be). Someone who is “holy, faithful, godly.”
That’s not us. (Or, at least it’s not describing me.)
Yet we are numbered with and as God’s saints. Right now. This very day.
That just seems…impossible!
We are sinners. We heard that just last week, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:12).
If we are sinners, we cannot be God’s holy, faithful, or godly people. They are mutually exclusive.
Except, they aren’t.
There is a Latin phrase which describes the Biblical reality, “simul justus et peccator,” “simultaneously saint and sinner.”
As we continue in the sinful flesh in a fallen world, we sin. As ones who have been redeemed by Christ and declared sin-free through faith, we are saints; now and forever.
Both true!
Too many Christians think of their “sainthood” as something that can and will only be attained when they die. Certainly, the full scope and realization exists when we are beyond this world, “away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8), but that doesn’t change the reality and we share the full identity as saints now just as our departed loved ones do (and all those who are to follow us!) through faith in Jesus.
You and I are His blessed saints! Now! Halleluia!
Now, let’s not squander this gift and reality. Let us strive by the power of the Holy Spirit to live our identity as holy, faithful, and godly. Let us seek – continually – to live, not resigned to the harsh reality as “simultaneously saint and sinner,” but striving to be “simultaneously saint and saintly.” Let us revel and glory in the grace of God who has forgiven us and removed all sin and filth from us but seeking Him and His ways on all our life and living. Let us live who we are – His blessed saints!
“Gracious Lord, I sin – daily and much. Thank You for sending Your Son to save me and forgive me. Thank You for Your Spirit who renews me and strengthens me. Thank You for making me a saint who sins rather than a sinner who hopes to one day be a saint. Thank You for Your immeasurable grace which will allow me to join with all of Your other saints who have gone before and all those who will follow – for eternity! In Jesus’ sacrifice, resurrection, reign, and name do we pray. Amen!”
Scripture
- Revelation 7:2-17
- 1 John 3:1-3
- Psalm 149 (responsory)
