Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
It never fails. Regardless of which church or which city I’m in, attending a typical evangelical church, I hear that one phrase that grates against my heart and my sensibilities. It might be a pastor or an elder stepping up to the microphone to pray or encourage the flock, and he begins with the fateful statement,
“We are just sinners, saved by grace”….
Although it offended my spirit, I never really knew why until I decided to do a study on it. Now I understand why that phrase is not only unscriptural, but also illogical, and one of the sticks we use to beat ourselves up in the church.
The point is that I want to call myself only what God calls me. If you look throughout the entire New Testament, nowhere does God call His people sinners. He calls them righteous. 1 Peter 4:8 is a good example:
“If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”
There is a name for you if you have believed in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. That name is “righteous”. If you want other names, they are “light”, “believer”, and “temple of God”. Listen to Paul in 2 Corinthians 6:14-16,
14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God.
Could it be clearer than this? In our false humility, we resort to calling ourselves and each other names. Again, nowhere in the NT does God call you a sinner. There will be no sinners in heaven. People are not sinners because they sin, they are sinners because they have not come to Christ to become new (righteous) creatures. Conversely, you are not righteous because you do right things all the time, you are righteous because you are a new creation, because of Christ’s work and the transformation by the Holy Spirit.
It doesn’t matter if you add “saved by grace”. That is irrelevant, as the first part of the statement says “I am a sinner…” (present tense). You are not (present tense) a sinner. You were a sinner, but you are not one now. Why glorify that part of your life, when God does not? You are a saint. Go through all of Paul’s Epistles and see how he addresses the church. He typically begins, as follows,
Romans 1:7 To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints…
1 Corinthinans 1:2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy…
2 Corinthians 1:1 To the church of God in Corinth, together with all the saints throughout Achaia:
Ephesians 1:1 To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus….
Philippians 1:1 To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons…
I could go on, but I hope my point is made. Why didn’t Paul say: “To all the sinners saved by grace in Ephesus…”? You are NOT a sinner, you are a saint, you are of a holy nation, a peculiar people, a people belonging to God. Do this for yourself: study the NT closely, looking for the names God calls you. See that He calls you a child of God in 1 John 3:2
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.
John didn’t say that you would become a child of God. You are already a child of God!! That’s who you are and what you are. He calls you many other names besides, none of which is “sinner”. The reason I’m discussing this here is that it affects your faith and your faith is important in healing. Calling yourself (present tense) a sinner is harmful to your faith because it is a lie. So let us grow up in Christ and stop using that harmful phrase, “I’m just a sinner, saved by grace”. It is neither humble nor true.
Hallelujah!! We are indeed the children of God, new creations, born again by the ressurection, righteousness, light, believers and saints e.t.c. That expression “sinner saved by grace” is such a crock of false humility. Who on earth gives birth to children and requires them to clothe themselves with a garment of inferiority complex? We should take the lesson of Phil 1:6 and acknowledge every good thing in us in Christ Jesus. Thanks much for sharing this truth. (Reference – Kenneth Hagin minibook – In Him).
What’s your reaction to Paul calling himself the chief of sinners?
Good question. I would read the surrounding verses, as such:
12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. 13 Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. 14 The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. 16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. 17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Starting with the “I am the worst”, it is clear that he means he is the worst example in terms of the things he did, not who he is now, either by nature or by acts.
How do we know? The clue is in the first bolded text: “I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor…” That is what he was, not is. When God’s grace was poured out on him the “worst of sinners”, then he became a new creature. Not you Nathan, but there is a tendency in Christendom to choose the least beneficial interpretation of scripture when there is the appearance of nuance. With hermeneutics and study, these nuances disappear. It is quite clear that the wrong interpretation does not square with its common interpretation or the copious instances of Paul’s description of who the believer is.
What Paul means is that he is the worst EXAMPLE of sinners, particularly because he went around putting them in irons and to death. However, the old Saul was dead when he wrote this, he was a New Creature in Christ and the “righteousness of God in Christ”.