Sinners or Saints — How Should We Speak of Christians?
00:00:00.000 | [music]
00:00:04.000 | Saints or sinners? How do we speak of Christians collectively?
00:00:09.000 | It's a question many of you have asked over the years, and Mark most recently.
00:00:13.000 | And we get to that question today. Mark writes this.
00:00:15.000 | "Hello, Pastor John. As a pastor and preacher, I pursue the truth of God in His Word.
00:00:20.000 | Every Sunday I strive to welcome and embrace the spiritual burden of speaking His truth
00:00:25.000 | and not my own opinion, knowing that His Word alone has the power to save us from the consequences
00:00:30.000 | of our sinful rebellion against a holy God.
00:00:35.000 | In light of this truth, I was recently challenged about my use of the word "sinner"
00:00:39.000 | to collectively speak of God's people.
00:00:42.000 | Can we who are saved by grace through faith still be called sinners,
00:00:46.000 | or is it more biblical to use the word "saint"?
00:00:50.000 | Paul calls himself the foremost of sinners in 1 Timothy 1, 15, 16,
00:00:55.000 | and James speaks of wayward believers who are brought back into the church body as sinners
00:01:00.000 | in James 5, 19-20.
00:01:03.000 | Yet there are many places throughout Scripture which refer to God's people as saints.
00:01:08.000 | So should God's collective people be primarily referred to as saints or as sinners?
00:01:14.000 | Well, first, a clarification in the way Mark poses the question.
00:01:19.000 | He cites Paul as saying, "I'm the foremost of sinners," but in the context,
00:01:24.000 | I don't think Paul means that now, as a Christian, he's the foremost.
00:01:31.000 | I think he means that that was true of me when God saved me because he supports it
00:01:38.000 | with the statement in verse 13 of 1 Timothy 1, "I was a blasphemer, persecutor, insolent opponent."
00:01:45.000 | He's not that anymore.
00:01:48.000 | However, we need to be careful because the fact that he uses the present tense,
00:01:54.000 | "I am the foremost," I think means I remain, among all people,
00:02:02.000 | the least likely candidate to have received salvation because of my former life.
00:02:09.000 | But he does not mean that he is living as the foremost of sinners right now.
00:02:17.000 | But when Mark refers to James 5:19-20, he's right that James calls this backsliding Christian a sinner.
00:02:29.000 | He says, "My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth,"
00:02:34.000 | so anyone among you, you Christians, "wanders from the truth and someone brings him back,
00:02:42.000 | let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death
00:02:51.000 | and will cover a multitude of sins."
00:02:54.000 | So, yes, that is right. James 5 does use the word for Christians.
00:03:00.000 | And, of course, we know from 1 John 1, verses 8-10, that there's no such thing as a Christian
00:03:10.000 | in this life who does not sin.
00:03:14.000 | If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
00:03:20.000 | If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
00:03:27.000 | If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his truth is not in us.
00:03:36.000 | And we know from Romans 7 that Paul treats himself, while a Christian,
00:03:41.000 | and we know from Romans 7 that Paul treats himself, while a Christian,
00:03:47.000 | as one who does some sins that he hates.
00:03:53.000 | And Jesus taught us to pray daily, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
00:03:59.000 | And the reason I say daily is because the immediately preceding request in the Lord's Prayer is,
00:04:06.000 | "Give us this day our daily bread."
00:04:09.000 | We need daily bread. We need daily forgiveness.
00:04:14.000 | So, there's no thought of there being any sinless Christian in this life. Agreed.
00:04:25.000 | So, should I stop right there? End of answer.
00:04:30.000 | There you have it. Christians are called sinners. We are still sinners.
00:04:34.000 | Mark asks, "Can we who are saved by grace through faith still be called sinners?"
00:04:41.000 | Answer, "Yes." End of question. Next question, Tony.
00:04:45.000 | No, we should not stop there.
00:04:48.000 | We dare not stop there because that does not get at the heart of the matter.
00:04:55.000 | Paul calls Christians saints, that is, holy ones, consecrated ones, set-apart ones,
00:05:04.000 | being made holy ones, saints, saved, set-apart for God, walking in the light.
00:05:11.000 | He calls Christians saints 40 times in his letters, but he virtually never uses the noun "sinner" to describe Christians.
00:05:26.000 | You might think there's one or two exceptions. I would argue probably not.
00:05:32.000 | At any rate, 40 to almost nothing. Why would that be?
00:05:37.000 | I think that's behind Mark's question. That's the issue.
00:05:40.000 | Why would that be? Since we all sin.
00:05:43.000 | In fact, in Romans 5:8, Paul says, "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners,
00:05:53.000 | we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
00:05:58.000 | What does that mean? While we were still sinners?
00:06:03.000 | It means that Paul has a way of understanding "sinner" that no longer applies to us.
00:06:12.000 | That's what it means. This is what gets Mark going.
00:06:15.000 | This is why his question is so relevant, so important.
00:06:19.000 | So we need to be careful here. We need to be thoughtful.
00:06:24.000 | We don't want to be superficial and say, "Whoa, the Bible says we always sin.
00:06:29.000 | A person who sins is a sinner, so it's right to call Christians sinners."
00:06:33.000 | Well, it's not that simple for two reasons.
00:06:38.000 | One, saying someone sins and saying they're a sinner may not mean exactly the same thing.
00:06:48.000 | Would you call yourself a liar? Because sometimes you lie.
00:06:53.000 | The connotation is not quite the same.
00:06:58.000 | Or here's the other reason. It's not simple.
00:07:01.000 | Christians really do have a different essential identity now that we're saved.
00:07:10.000 | Now that we're saved, we really are new creatures in Christ.
00:07:16.000 | Sinner is not our essential identity any longer in Christ.
00:07:24.000 | That's the nub of the matter.
00:07:26.000 | Consider this remarkable statement in 1 Corinthians 5.7.
00:07:31.000 | "Cleanse out the old leaven, yeast."
00:07:34.000 | "Cleanse out the old yeast." He's using this for a picture of sin.
00:07:38.000 | "Cleanse out the old yeast, that you may be a new lump of dough as you really are unleavened."
00:07:50.000 | For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
00:07:53.000 | Unleavened. Really unleavened.
00:07:56.000 | In other words, because of Christ's death for us, we are in our most essential identity unleavened.
00:08:06.000 | That is, sinless.
00:08:10.000 | And the unique thing about Christian morality, Christian ethics,
00:08:15.000 | is that we now fight against our sin, really fight against our own sinning, because it's gone.
00:08:27.000 | It's not there.
00:08:29.000 | "Cleanse out the old sin, because you're sinless."
00:08:34.000 | That's the mystery of Christian life.
00:08:37.000 | "Cleanse out the old sin."
00:08:40.000 | "Kill sin in your life," Romans 8.13.
00:08:43.000 | "Because you're sinless."
00:08:45.000 | That's who you are.
00:08:47.000 | The fight against our ongoing sinning is the evidence that we are in Christ and in him without sin,
00:08:58.000 | in our inmost essential identity.
00:09:01.000 | Let me say that again.
00:09:03.000 | The fight against, the real, living, daily fight, is evidence.
00:09:09.000 | That's what pastors look for in their people.
00:09:12.000 | "I'm looking for evidence that you're a Christian."
00:09:14.000 | And the evidence is that you're in Christ, and if you're in Christ, you're without sin.
00:09:20.000 | So fighting sin is the evidence that you are without sin.
00:09:25.000 | In Colossians 3.9, Paul put it like this, "Do not lie to one another."
00:09:31.000 | So kill that. Get rid of that sin. Don't do that.
00:09:35.000 | Confess it. Repent. Turn away. If you do that, don't do that.
00:09:38.000 | Why? Seeing that you have put off the old self, the old identity, the old you.
00:09:44.000 | You've put it off. It's dead. It's crucified with Christ, with its practices.
00:09:48.000 | And you've put on the new self, new identity, new you,
00:09:52.000 | which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
00:09:56.000 | You have put off the old self, namely the self that was in its essential identity a sinner.
00:10:03.000 | That's what you've put off. That self has died with Christ.
00:10:08.000 | Now you are, you are, capital A-R-E, a new self.
00:10:15.000 | Put it on. Put on what you are.
00:10:17.000 | That is, cleanse out the old leaven because you are unleavened.
00:10:21.000 | Specifically, he says, don't lie to one another.
00:10:24.000 | You are without sin. You are not liars. So don't lie.
00:10:30.000 | So don't sin. That's the glorious paradox of the Christian life.
00:10:35.000 | And I think that is why Paul virtually never uses the noun "sinner" to describe the Christian.
00:10:43.000 | Because it sounds like a deep identity marker.
00:10:49.000 | And so it would not be true.
00:10:52.000 | Paul gives plenty of evidence that Christians still sin.
00:10:55.000 | We battle sin. Put it to death. Romans 8.13.
00:10:59.000 | But he makes plain that's not who we are.
00:11:05.000 | And listen to Colossians 3.12.
00:11:07.000 | Put on then as God's chosen, holy, loved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience,
00:11:18.000 | forgiving one another as the Lord has forgiven you.
00:11:21.000 | This is Paul's typical way of thinking.
00:11:24.000 | You are chosen. You are holy. You are loved.
00:11:29.000 | So put this identity on and treat each other with love in Christ.
00:11:38.000 | So what's the answer then?
00:11:42.000 | Pastors. That's how this all started with the question of trying to be faithful to shepherd a people.
00:11:49.000 | Pastors, absorb, absorb this New Testament way of reckoning with two realities.
00:11:58.000 | One, the ongoing sin in the lives of your people. It's real.
00:12:03.000 | Two, their deepest identity as chosen, holy, and loved. That's real.
00:12:11.000 | Then teach them, one, who they are, and two, what they're going to have to deal with and how they relate to each other.
00:12:21.000 | Speak to them according to this reality.
00:12:25.000 | Amen. 40 to almost nothing.
00:12:28.000 | Thank you for the stat and for the summary of Paul here, Pastor John.
00:12:32.000 | It's a great question, Mark. Thank you for sending it in to us.
00:12:34.000 | And thank you for joining us today.
00:12:36.000 | You can ask a question of your own or search our growing archive or subscribe to the podcast all at AskPastorJohn.com.
00:12:45.000 | Well, Monday, we look at the shipwrecked faith once again.
00:12:49.000 | Sometimes when we talk about shipwrecking the faith, we assume that this is a term of final undoing, like there's no hope for return, an unpardonable state.
00:13:02.000 | And that's actually not the case, as we will also see from the life and writings of the Apostle Paul,
00:13:08.000 | a man who himself survived at least four shipwrecks in his lifetime, at the very least four shipwrecks.
00:13:15.000 | And there's a correlation there, and Pastor John will explain it next time.
00:13:18.000 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you back here on Monday.
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