Saints and Sinners

Saints and Sinners

I was brought up in a church that majored in saints and sinners. It was easy to identify who was who. The saints were the ones depicted in stain glass windows with halos on their heads, hands folded, and faces lifted to heaven. Plaster statues around the church were a constant reminder that some had attained a life of perfect holiness. The rest of us were sinners.

Growing up under a religious system that promoted a clear line of demarcation between saint and sinner, left little hope of seeing myself in stained glass. The saintly bar was so high that it was much easier to face reality, confess my sins, cross my fingers and hope someday to get to heaven. As an incentive, I was encouraged to pray to the saints to put in a good word for me.

The Bible has a whole different understanding of the saint – sinner issue. Saint in the Bible is one who’s heart is set on the Lord; one who calls oneself a Christian. Paul, writing letters to the early church always addresses them as saints, the ones without the halos. If you know anything about the early church, you realize that they were a mixed bag of converted Jews, converted pagan worshippers and a lot worse. Not a halo in the bunch.

The Bible sinner is a saint who miss the mark. The common New Testament word for sinner is an archery term and literally means one who misses the bull’s eye. Even though I am a disciple of Jesus, I make choices that miss the mark of God’s best for my life. That does not disqualify me from being a saint, but it does require a change of attitude. As I live life as a believer, my choices get more in line with God’s best for me.

The bottom line on sainthood is this: we are saints by virtue of the way that God looks on and treats us. The Bible tells us that God loves us no matter what. We can’t outrun the love of God. No matter what religion may teach to the contrary, we are saints who sin, and God forgives and restores. 

Now that’s Good News even without a halo!