We are Saints!

“To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 1:1).

“Saints”.

We’ve all heard of them. What do you think of when you think of a saint? Paintings of biblical figures with halos over their heads? Mother Teresa serving the needy in Kolkata, India? Usually you think of sainthood as something wonderful you did so therefore you are qualified to be canonized as a saint. Saints, or patron saints, are like superheroes. It’s pretty funny, actually, (if not cringey). I looked up patron saints and found the patron saint of Beekeeping, the patron saint of Juvenile delinquents, the patron saint of unattractive people (who happens to also be the patron saint of coffee… and no, I’m not making a statement here…), the patron saint of procrastination, and St. Arnold, the patron saint of Beer. 

Excellent. If you’re going to be a patron saint, why not pick beer? Most of us would qualify for procrastination.

Though it sounds like a punchline, the process by which the Catholic church deems someone worthy of sainthood is pretty intense.

How To Become A Saint

First, you have to be a Catholic. But not just a normal Catholic. You can’t be a “Chreaster” as some have been called, who attend only on Christmas and Easter. You have to live a holy Christian life fully of heroic “virtue”.

Second, I know it’s difficult, but you have to die. Sorry for the bad news.

Thirdly, a local ‘devotion’ will need to grow up around your ministry. The local bishop will then need to open up an investigation into your life.

Then, because of your proximity to God in heaven, you need to pray for a miracle. If God will answer your prayer, and a miracle is performed with your intercession, the Vatican will then investigate the miraculous cure. If it checks out, The Vatican will then declare you “blessed”. (There is a different system if you’re martyred, but you get the picture.)

Wait, what? Is that the picture of sainthood that Paul is describing here in Ephesians 1? No, that process is the essence of works-based religion. Jesus hates works-based religion, because it does its part to nullify the cross of Christ. It was the only thing that angered Him. I love the clarity in the Scriptures regarding Jesus, that He wept, that He loved, that He sweat, that He became angry. Anger isn’t a sin, sinning in your anger is a sin. Jesus was angry yet without sin, because of works-based religion in the temple. It’s an atrocity.

If righteousness could be attained through the law, then Christ died for nothing (Galatians 2:21). He died in vain. The cross was an utter failure and a waste of a life.

However, the Scriptures remind us that righteousness cannot be attained through the law (Phil 3:9, Romans 9:31-32)! We cannot become “saints” through good works or by performing pious acts. We are simply saints by faith, not in our own virtue or work, but in Christ’s. True saints are those who have been made saints because of Jesus Christ and His finished work.

We can’t lose sainthood by being evil. But conversely, we can’t earn it by being good.

We receive this title because Jesus accomplished that title for us by dying on the cross for our sins.

One last thing: the word “saints” is never used in any context in the New Testament except plural. We corporately are the sanctified people of God. We are a part of a community of saints!

D.A. Carson said, "Local churches should see themselves as outcroppings of heaven, analogies of "the Jerusalem that is above", indeed colonies of the New Jerusalem, providing on earth a corporate and visible expression of "the glorious freedom of the children of God."

What amazing news.

We’re saints!