Saint, Not Sinner - Kris Vallotton

---REPOST FROM XANGA JUNE 2010---

Excerpt from Kris Vallotton:

Now that we understand that names aren’t just a matter of semantics, let’s take a closer look at how names affect us. Before we received Christ we were called “sinners.” We were professionals; our name was a job description. We were prone to sin. When we received Christ we became “saints.” Paul makes this clear in his letters to the believers because he called them saints. Here are a few examples: “To all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints” (Rom. 1:7a); “To the church of God, which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling” (1 Cor. 1:2a); “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 1:1). The word saint means, “holy believer.” You can’t be a sinner and a saint
at the same time. How is it possible to be prone to sin and still be a holy believer?

The word “sinner” implies that we are prone to do wrong. If we believe that we are sinners, we will sin by faith! Remember what we learned earlier, “For as [a man] thinks within himself, so he is” (Prov. 23:7). Like Jacob, trapped in deception by his name, if we still believe we are sinners, we will be unable to access the grace to live as a saint and will still try to perform good works in order to merit forgiveness. It is not our nature to sin anymore. First John 3:7-9 says,

Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

We are Christians; it is not our nature to do wrong. Our very nature has been changed. Now we are actually saints; righteousness is part of our new nature and it is natural for us to glorify God. Our old man is buried. We need to stop visiting our tombs and talking to our dead, old man. (In the Old Testament, people were judged and killed for talking to the dead—a practice called necromancy.) We are a new creation. It’s below our nature to act like that now—we are now princes and princesses of the King!

The power of the cross not only dealt with the forgiveness of our sins but it also changed our very nature. Some people have isolated the effects of the born-again experience to the spirit. That’s not accurate. Salvation changed our entire being! Peter says that we are “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4). Think of it, your very nature is now divine! Paul said that we our “new creatures” in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). He didn’t say we are new spirits, He said “new creatures!” If we believe that we are still sinners, we dilute the power of the blood and then, like Jacob, spend our days trying to be good. 

We still have a free will, and we can still choose to sin. However, as saints it doesn’t come easily anymore.
“It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20)

[http://www.kvministries.com/index.php?page=Supernatural%20Ways%20Chapter%205]