SAINT OR SINNER?
Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32). Who then does the Lord deem to be a righteous saint or a sinner. The Bible presents cases for our understanding about how the Lord God regards people as saints or sinners
CASE 1: SINNER OR SAINT?
In speaking about sinners and self-righteous people, Jesus tells us about a Pharisee and a sinful woman” Jesus was invited to eat at the house of a Pharisee named Simon. A sinful woman in the town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house. She brought a jar of costly perfume and knelt behind Jesus at his feet, and with her tears she washed his feet, dried then with her hair, kissed them many times, and rubbed them with the perfume.
Simon, the Pharisee, thought to himself, if Jesus was a prophet, he would know the woman touching him was a sinner.
Jesus told Simon about two people who owed the same lender money. One owed him 500 coins; the other owed him 50. Because they had no money to pay, the lender forgave them both. He then asked Simon, which person would love the lender more? The Pharisee replied, “the one who owed him the most money.” Jesus told him he was right.
Jesus went on to tell the Simon about all the sinful woman had done for him while he was at his house. In comparison, he told Pharisee, “you did not wash my head; but she poured perfume on my feet.” Then he said, her many sins are forgiven, for she showed great love in recognizing her sins. But he said the person who sees themselves as having been forgiven for only a little, loves only a little. (Luke 7:36-48).
CASE 2: SINNER OR SAINT?
Jesus tells us about two men who went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee prayed; “God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.” (The scriptures say no one can love God whom they have not seen, without loving people made in the image of God whom they have seen–1 John 4:20; Genesis 1:27).
However, the tax collector, not believing himself worthy to lift his eyes to heaven, prayed: “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Jesus said the collector, who saw himself as a sinner was justified in the eyes of God, rather than the self-righteous Pharisee who boasted of his good works. (Luke 18:9-14).
CASE 3: SINNER OR SAINT TODAY?
The biblical Word of God says:
- There is no one righteous, not even one…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:10; 23).
- And all our righteous acts are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).
- But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).
- For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23).
- For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
God saves obedient believers, “not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesian 2:8-9).
Because you repent of your sins and believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, God recognizes you as one of his born-again saints (John 3:5-8; John 3:16).The Holy Spirit then inspires you to do works acceptable to God: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’” Luke 10:27). And “love one another; as [Jesus Christ] have loved you” (John 13:34). Finally, God rewards you with an eternal crown of righteousness for believing and obeying your Lord God (2 Timothy 4:8).
