SHOCKING! Now wait a minute.
A persons identity is changed from a worldly identity when one has obeyed the gospel of Jesus Christ transitioning from outside the church to inside the church a new member of the Kingdom. Lets explore.
I believe it's a healthy practice to read and study on religious things penned by writers I don't agree with because they are asking questions I'm not asking. They turn the camera angle in a way I haven't. It's not that I think they are right, I usually don't. But sometimes I don't even know to ask the question. Here is a faith challenging topic I would like to share and I am sure at first, your going to raise some eyebrows by it's title.
A persons identity is changed from a worldly identity when one has obeyed the gospel of Jesus Christ transitioning from outside the church to inside the church a new member of the Kingdom. Lets explore.
Throughout the letters of the New Testament, the people
of God are called lots of things. They are the “elect” (1 Pet 1:1), “faithful
brothers” (Col 1:2), “beloved” (1 John 2:7), “children of God” (1 John 3:2), a
“holy nation” (1 Pet 2:9), and most of all they are called “saints.”
Conspicuously absent from this list is the term
“sinners.” There is no place I am aware
of where the church, the people of God, are collectively called “sinners.” Moreover, an argument can be made that there
is no instance in the New Testament where a believer is referred to as a
“sinner.” The closest is Paul’s
well-known reference to himself as the “foremost” (or “chief”) of sinners in 1
Tim 1:15. But, the context makes it plain
that Paul is using this terminology to refer to his old life as a persecutor of
the church. He says, “formerly I was a
blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent” (1:13).
Now, of course, this does not mean that Christians do not
sin. Indeed, Christians do sin, and sin
in ways that are much deeper and more serious than we often realize. This is the whole point of Romans 7 where
Paul laments the fact that he often does what he does not want to do. The entire Christian life is a struggle
between the new self and the old self, and the latter often wins out. Paul can even refer to himself as a “wretched
man” (Rom 7:24).
"If we instead view ourselves as “saints,” then we will begin to see our sin in a whole new light."
But, here is what is interesting. As Paul diagnoses his own law-breaking he
concludes that whenever he sins, it is not the real Paul that is doing it. He declares, “So now it is no longer I who do
it, but sin that dwells within me” (7:17).
And again, “Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it,
but sin that dwells within me” (7:20).
Do not misunderstand what Paul is doing here. He is not trying to conjure up some excuse
where he is not guilty of these sins by reason of having a schizophrenic, split
personality. No, Paul knows he is
culpable for these sins. But, in the
midst of doing so, Paul is keen to make it plain that it is not the new Paul
that is sinning, but the old Paul. In this
sense, he can say that when he sins, he is not his true self.
Put another way, Paul’s identity is bound up in the new
man that he has become in Christ.
If so, then this explains (at least partially) why Paul
is so keen to refer to believers as “saints” (literally “holy ones”) at the
beginning of almost all his letters.
Paul is not naive about the fact that Christians still sin, and sin in
major ways (indeed, his letters are often about their sins!). But, he wants Christians to think of
themselves in regard to their new natures, not their old. They are saints who sometimes sin, not
sinners who sometimes do right.
And when our true identities are understood rightly, it
actually affects the way we view (and respond to) our sins. We might think that the best way to
appreciate the depth of our sin is to think of ourselves primarily in the
category of “sinners.” But, this can
actually have the opposite effect. If we
think of ourselves only as “sinners” then our sins are seen as something rather
ordinary and inevitable. They are just
the result of who we are. Sure, we wish
we didn’t sin. But, that’s just what
“sinners” do.
If we instead view ourselves as “saints,” then we will
begin to see our sin in a whole new light.
If we really are “holy ones” then whatever sins we commit are a deeper,
more profound, and more serious departure from God’s calling than we ever
realized. Our sin, in a sense, is even
more heinous because it is being done by those who now have new natures and a
new identity.
And it is this “cognitive dissonance” between our
identities as saints and our sinful actions that leads us to repentance. We repent because these sins are not ordinary
and expected. They are fundamentally
contrary to who God has made us to be.
It is this tension between our identities and our actions that is lost
when we cease to think of ourselves as saints.
In the end, I am not suggesting that Christians can never
refer to themselves with the word “sinner.”
If rightly understood, this can be fine.
But, we should also be keen to think of ourselves as saints. After all, when Christ returns that is what
we will be. In glory, there will be no
sinners. Only saints.
Dr. Michael Kruger
Charlotte, NC
