Wednesday, June 15, 2011
1 Corinthians 1:2 … to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints ...
CALLED SAINTS
Are you a "saint" -- a holy person before the holy God? You are if you have been sanctified. Sanctification is the act by which the Holy Spirit makes saints (holy people) out of sinners. It is a separating of the sinner from sin's power and punishment for the purpose of making him God's own, in life first and then, also in death and eternity.
In life first? That's right! Saints are not created posthumously [after they die] by the favorable pronouncement of the church upon the "righteous life" of the deceased. Saints are created when sinners living in this world are no longer "of this world" (John 15:19), because the Holy Spirit has called them out of the darkness of sin and unbelief by the power of Christ's Gospel of forgiveness.
When the Spirit causes a poor sinner to hear and believe that since the whole world has been reconciled to God, also all his sins are forgiven on account of the life, sufferings, and death of that other Man, the very Son of God, that sinner has been separated from the world has become a saint -- a holy one before His Savior God! So the apostle Paul could write: "To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints ..." (1 Corinthians 1:2).
-- from "The Lutheran Spokesman"
