Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Isaiah 61:10 I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness.
I AM A SAINT? . . . REALLY?
If you should ask: "But can it be so? I, a holy one? My life is strewn with the debris of broken commandments. How then can it be said: 'I am a saint'?"
It's true: "We all stumble in many ways" (James 3:2). "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6). But here is the glory of the Gospel. Christ Jesus carried the sins of the world to the cross and made atonement for them there. He didn't sin once. Yet God treated Him as if He were a sinner, so that we might receive God's approval (perfect holiness and righteousness) through Him.
It is for this reason that Paul could also address the people to whom he wrote his New Testament letters as "saints" (see Romans 1:7, Ephesians 1:1, Philippians 1:1). As we read these letters it doesn't take long to notice that these early Christians were guilty of transgressing God's holy will in a myriad of ways. But the God of all grace had removed their transgressions from them as far as east is from west--for the sake of the Savior in whom they believed.
So it could truly be said of them: "You are saints." Because of the work of Jesus in whom you believe, the same can be said of you.
The Church's one foundation Is Jesus Christ, her Lord;
She is His new creation By water and the Word.
From heaven He came and sought her To be His holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her, And for her life He died.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 473:1)
