“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
II Corinthians 5:17 KJV
Once you know Christ as Savior, you are a new creature. Your spirit is quickened (made alive), giving birth to a new nature – a holy nature, one just like Christ’s. Your old sin nature is no longer the controlling force in your life. You now have the power (through Christ) to resist temptation, to obey God, and the privilege to walk in fellowship with the Holy Creator of our universe. Holiness cannot fellowship with sin, but once you are saved, you now have the nature of Christ. That enables the holiness of God to fellowship with the holiness of his saint through the new nature.
Saint or Sinner. Now that we’re saved, are we saints or are we still sinners? We still sin; that’s evident. Our sin nature has not been eradicated, but does that mean that God still views us as sinners?
Luke 15:7 says, “I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.”
Once we’re justified by Christ, God no longer considers us sinners otherwise he would have said …over ninety and nine sinners, which need no repentance.
I Peter 4:18 says, “And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?”
Again, the word righteous is distinctly separate from the word sinner. Sinner is linked to the ungodly, whereas the word righteous is making reference to God’s people. Throughout the Bible, God refers to the wicked as sinner and to the saint as righteous.
- Psalm 97:10 “Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.”
- Psalm 31:23 “O love the LORD, all ye his saints: for the LORD preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer.”
- Psalm 34:9 “O fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him.”
According to the dictionary, a saint is “one who is separated from the world and consecrated to God; one holy by profession and by covenant; a believer in Christ.” So when you say things like, “I’m just a poor sinner, saved by grace,” you are actually resurrecting that old nature and identifying yourself with the ungodly. But we’re not to look or act like the ungodly in any way.
Ephesians 4:22-24 says, “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”
This is what God expects of His children; that we behave righteously, as the saints of God and no longer identify ourselves as sinners.