As I’ve said in earlier writings, the Bible teaches me that I am forgivable! I am lovable! I am valuable! I am acceptable, and I am capable. It even teaches me that I am righteous. Paul writes to all the believers in the churches he planted, and his address to them is always the same. He addresses his letters to “all the saints” at the particular location. I’ll quote Ephesians 1:1 as an example, “To the saints who are in Ephesus.” The word for “saint” comes from the word meaning holy. It means set apart as something special. Things are holy, as we see throughout the Old Testament. Places are Holy also. What makes them holy is that they were identified as being set apart by God for a particular reason. He set Abraham apart. He set Isaac, Jacob, and all of Israel apart as His “holy” people. Tell teaches us that we are one with the special people of God in the Old Testament. God has grafted us into the branch. Just as His chosen people were special to him and set apart, so too are you and I and all those who believe in Jesus. We are holy people.
I don’t always feel holy, do you? There’s no halo over my head! I often feel weak, empty, and sick of struggles that overwhelm me repeatedly. I’m tired of not being what I should be and letting temptations sneak up and trip me up and circumstances that get me down. I have to remind myself of God’s grace continually. I sometimes forget who I am. It’s hard to remember in the frey of battle that I am sufficient in Christ whether I feel like it or not. I am what God says I am, whether I feel like it at the moment or not. The circumstances and temptations that take me captive have no chance at all if I hang on to God’s truth about myself. Believing what the Bible says sets us free! That’s what the truth does! It sets us free. I’m saying these things out loud as I write them. I am forgivable! I am lovable! I am valuable! I am acceptable, and I am capable! I am righteous! It sounds funny actually to say those things out loud, but they are true, not because of any intrinsic goodness in myself, but because God says it’s true.
Let me tell you a biblical truth that will set you free. Better yet, let me quote James M. Boice on the subject. Here is what he writes, “Are you a Christian? If so, you are a saint, and so am I—regardless of our station in life. We are so, not because of what we have done, but because we have been separated unto God in Jesus. An illustration of this truth comes from the life of the late Harry Ironside of Chicago. During the early days of his ministry, before there were airplanes, Dr. Ironside used to travel many miles by train. On one of these trips, a four-day ride from the West Coast to his home in Chicago, the Bible teacher found himself in the company of a party of nuns. They liked him because of his kind manner and his interesting reading and exposition of the Bible. One day, Dr. Ironside began a discussion by asking the nuns if any of them had ever seen a saint. They all said that they had never seen one. He then asked if they would like to see one. They all said that they would like to see one. Then he surprised them greatly by saying, ‘I am a saint; I am Saint Harry.’ He took them to verses of the Bible that say it was so. Sixty-three times in the New Testament, “all believers” are called saints. When we come to faith in Christ, He sees us as His chosen people. We are saints. Boice goes on to say, “Your name may sound funny when you preface it with the title ‘saint.’But you may rest assured that it does not sound funny to God—whether you are a Saint George, a Saint Lucy, or a Saint Harriet. God knows us all by name, and it is he who calls us saints in Christ Jesus.”
Saint Chuck