What Does It Take to Be a Saint?
A person becomes a saint not by dying, but by living.
There were two evil brothers. They were rich, and used their money to keep their ways from the public eye. They even attended the same church, and looked to be perfect Christians.
Then their pastor retired, and a new one was called. Not only could he see right through the brothers’ deception, but he also spoke the truth in love, and the church started to swell in numbers. A fundraising campaign was started to build a new church hall. All of a sudden, one of the brothers died. The remaining brother sought out the new pastor the day before the funeral and handed him a check for the amount needed to finish paying for the new building.
“I have only one condition,” he said. “At his funeral, you must say my brother was a saint.” The pastor gave his word, and deposited the check.
The next day, at the funeral, the pastor didn’t hold back. “He was an evil man,” the pastor said. “He cheated, he lied, he stole, he…” After going on like this for a while, he concluded with, “But compared to his brother, he was a saint.”
Funny, but take caution not to overextend this comparison argument and figure of speech. Any of us, if we were to find evil elsewhere and use it to make ourselves look better, could proclaim ourselves to be saints. The devil loves to help us convince ourselves that we’re good people because, after all, we’re not Hitler or Saddam Hussein or some slimy politician or greedy executive.
However, to be a saint, according to Scripture, takes more than being good. It takes being perfect. The Bible word “saint” is actually derived from the word for “holy.” Who, then, are the saints? And what does it take to be one?
Being a saint is like being an heir. The Bible speaks of the riches of God’s “glorious inheritance among the saints” (Ephesians 1:18). You don’t apply to become an heir. You don’t go to college and take classes to become an heir for a living. When you are an heir, you are born into the position of inheritance as a privilege that is yours simply by birth. A person who is a saint doesn’t achieve the status by skill or competency or achievement. But by birth.
Psalm 85:8 refers to saints as God’s people—they belong to him. Born again into faith, saints are the children of God who believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are “holy” and cleansed “by the washing with water through the word” in baptism (Ephesians 5:26). Blameless before God not because of perfect behavior but because of the blood of Jesus Christ applied at baptism for the forgiveness of sins, saints “sing for joy” (Psalm 132:9).
On this Veterans Day we remember not only those brave men and women who have died in service for our country (that’s Memorial Day), but all those who have served in the military and are dead or still living. A person becomes a saint not by dying, but by living in the saving blessing of God’s grace. Now. And forever.
You don’t have to be perfect before receiving the status of sainthood, just like a child doesn’t have to be perfect to receive an inheritance. It’s a gift. So the Bible speaks to sinners who are “loved by God and called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 1:7). God decides that he sees sinners as holy when we believe in Jesus.
So compare yourself to Jesus if you want to look good. You’ll see his saving works—living, dying, rising—and rejoice that they curse sin’s curse, cleansing you to be holy like Jesus. A saint of God. With the holiness of Jesus as an identity and a template, live as a saint today. And forever.
PRAYER: Holy God, I don’t feel perfect, and my thoughts and words haven’t been holy. See me and save me not as I am but as Jesus Christ makes me, forgiven, blameless, and cleansed by his blood and in baptism. Overpower sin in my life by your extraordinary promises that I believe as one born of you. And bring me at last to join the saints triumphant in your eternal glory. Amen.