I Am What is Right with the World

A tweet read, “What’s wrong with the world? I am because I am a sinner.”

I disagree. I’m a saint and I am what is right with the world. If anyone who believes Jesus died for our sins and is resurrected and we share in his resurrection life is a saint and you are also what is right with the world. Together, we can change the world. Unfortunately you don’t qualify if you are a sinner; saints only for this particular mission.

Oops. Did I make you feel uncomfortable? Did I just include you in a bold-faced claim that you don’t want to be made accountable for? Do you feel like I’ve blasphemed the Lord by saying I’m not a sinner? If so, you may want to cover your eyes and rock back and forth until you hear the men with the padded cell buckle me into a straightjacket and take me away. 

The problem with making a claim – any claim - we must accomplish it lest we be called hypocrite. Being called a hypocrite is obviously worse than sinner because no one admits to being a hypocrite. No, we don’t want to be a hypocrite but we have no quandary about continuing to refer to ourselves as sinner even though it was 5, 10, 30 years ago that we walked across the border between darkness and light.

You may wonder if I’m so much a saint, do I still sin? Sadly, it is true but even though I sin that doesn’t make me a sinner – no more than barking makes me a dog.

The Bible tells me I’m a saint. We can believe the Bible or not. I choose to believe.

Colossians 1:12, “giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints of the light.”

1 Thessalonians 3:13 “so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.”

Jude 3, “Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”

It’s just words - sinner, saint, you say. True, we were all sinners. But if we still think ourselves to be sinners even though the Bible clearly argues that we are saints having received forgiveness through the blood of Jesus, there is not a question about whether we will sin because, sinners sin. What you focus on, you become.

We are dead to sin as per Romans 5-7, and alive in Christ as per Galatians 2:20, We are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) – called a saint, no longer identified as a sinner. We reflect Christ’s glory, which is the purpose of world evangelism – to see Christ glorified through transformation. How will he do that but through his saints?

I am a saint, and I am what is right with the world. I am what the world needs. You are what is right with the world. Well yes, Jesus is what is right with the world and Jesus is what the world needs but because Jesus is represented by his saints, ergo, you are what is right with the world.

Do you think of yourself as sinner or saint? Is it easier to think of yourself as a sinner, rather than a saint? Let me know in the comments.