Just who am I?

I hope I will not sound too insulting to say that the devotional I read today was boilerplate. Boilerplate can be useful (ask a steel mill), and until recent years I would have read this one-page sermonette and thought it helpful.

With Philippians 1:1 cited as its heading, the counsel dispensed concerned what it means to be a "saint," and it adhered pretty closely to the template I have read many times when that subject is brought up in an attempt to encourage the brethren. Paragraph one started predictably enough by acknowledging the fact that many of us don't feel like "saints"; we mess up.

Paragraph two debunked, as these devotionals usually do, the notion that a "saint" is only the person who has been "canonized" into that category by a certain church body. This thought was rounded off by an exhortation to the reader not to elevate certain Christians above other Christians. All good stuff.

The next step, typically enough, was the observation that even the vilest sinner who trusts in Jesus is white as the driven snow in God's eyes. This also is commonly preached, and is true, and is always encouraging to be reminded of.

At this juncture, an objection of the reader is anticipated: "It still seems that some Christians are closer to God than I am." The author is ready to give solace: "The best saints are the ones who are most aware of what great sinners they are." He does not adduce the anecdote of the Pharisee and the publican (Luke 18:9-14), but it would have been a good spot for it.

The brief treatise on "saints" ends here, and I find myself not happy.

In the old days I would have taken comfort (or thought I did) in the reminder that though I am a mess-up and pretty much will be a mess-up till I die, yet I am "positionally" pure in God's eyes. And even now for me this positional notion is a most wonderful truth: Thank God for the doctrine of justification!

But so much of the comfort that the Christian is meant to have in this lifetime is missing from the above treatment of the topic of "saints." And the reason, to my thinking, is that somewhere along the line, the Church of Christ has somehow been robbed of its riches by poor teaching.

What the hagridden Christian needs to be made cognizant of is all the teachings in the Word that give hope of a life of increase in holiness and decrease in sin. There is more to the Christian life than treading water till we die. There is victory over old sin patterns. There are authentic deliverances. There is a kind of biblical perfectionism (one is afraid to use the word in some circles, but the Bible dares to speak it) to strive for, not as a futile beating the air but as winning the fight.

A person's faith will never rise higher than his perception of who God is. A person's life will never rise higher than his perception of who he is in Christ. As for God, He is the one for whom all things are possible, and the one whose Son came to undo the works of the devil and to set us free from his bondage. As for you and me, we are a "new creation," and by the atonement, enabled to "reign in life."

If I were ever to write a devotional on the encouragement of being a saint, I would not want to leave out verses like 1 Peter 1:16 and Romans 6:13,19. We saints need not---must not!---wait around for some future grace to change us, when the grace has already been granted (Romans 5:17-18; Titus 2:11). To cooperate with the Holy Spirit is not "works righteousness" but obedience. Absolute perfection awaits His return. But there is much more in the "already" than some of us were told. To not aim for something is to surely miss it.

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