Called As Saints

by WOODS, D. | Category: The Call Of Christ | Apr 2009

Once, when preoccupied with legitimate distractions in Paris' Charles De Gaulle airport, I didn't hear the boarding call for my flight home to Manchester. Right at the last moment I noticed the time, raced to the gate to be greeted by some disgruntled French ground staff. 'We've been calling for you. Please board immediately. You're the final passenger.' It had been a close call!

God is calling too, but not all hear it. Some hear it, but don't respond as fully as God desires. It's a call to become an integral part of something that is so precious to Him - a call to be found among God's people: His saints who are gathered according to His will. Have you heard it and responded?

God's desire for every believer is that they be joined harmoniously with others and together obey the commands of the Lord and follow His teaching as it's been revealed in God's Word. Such believers will be baptised and added to a local church of God, and will enjoy meeting together for fellowship, for prayer, for teaching and for the Remembrance, or the 'Breaking of the Bread'. Such a group of disciples is known as a Church of God.(1)

Paul greeted the individuals who together formed the local Churches of God in Rome and Corinth as those who were 'called as saints' and 'saints by calling'.(2) Ananias, in his conversation with the Lord during the vision recorded in Acts 9, referred to the early Christians of the Church of God in Jerusalem as 'Your saints'.(3)

Erroneous teaching has led many to follow a false tradition of recognising individuals of immense spiritual character as 'saints', who attain such a status only when their lives are reviewed by others after death. How far from the truth this is! God's Word reveals to us that those at Rome and Corinth were 'saints by calling.'

Looking at the original New Testament language brings us a proper sense of what the word 'saints' really means. The Greek foundation (hagios) is a word that denotes something 'sacred' or 'holy', and is elsewhere simply translated as 'holy'. It's logical, then, to read 'saints' as 'holy ones'. When we place this alongside the wonderful scriptures of Ephesians 1 - 'He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him'(4) - we gain an altogether superior view of what 'saints by calling' conveys. It's not a designation based on an assessment made by man, but an eternal calling of God.

Of course, holiness is something that God desires from every believer. Our personal holiness facilitates a closeness of ongoing relationship with a holy God. As individuals, we are to be set apart to Him, and separate from the defilement of a corrupting world. When Paul wrote to the saints in Corinth he encouraged them with the words - let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.(5) Paul knew, all too well, the great struggle we have in maintaining personal holiness before our holy God. Defilement affects our 'flesh' and our 'spirit' and can lead to ruin. How right Paul was not to mention the 'soul' in that verse - our souls have been forever cleansed and made holy by the atoning work of Christ - it's in our bodies and minds before God that we're required to give effect to our salvation with fear and trembling.(6)

We know those things that defile our flesh and spirit, but we're often guilty of continuing in them. How can we guard ourselves against such defilement? Some suggestions might be:

1) attempting to consciously live each moment appreciating the reality of the presence of God. If we know that the Holy Spirit indwells us and we seek to allow him to have His influence in all that we do, then our lives lived under such moment-by-moment direction will be holy lives.

2) laying hold of the wonderful promise of 1 John 1:9 - 'If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness'. True and sincere confession and repentance before God removes the stains of sin. To confess to Him we must be speaking with Him - prayer is vital if we are to be holy people.

3) spending time in God's Word, reading His repeated calls for His people to be holy. This will show us the true standards by which we should live our lives - God clearly tells us what's expected! We're encouraged to 'consider Jesus' and to run 'fixing our eyes on Jesus'.(7) He's the benchmark.

4) pre-worship self-assessment. The people of God have the great privilege of worshipping God in the Holy Place. From Psalm 24 we learn that only those with 'clean hands' and 'pure hearts' (cf. 'flesh and spirit') can ascend the hill of the Lord and stand in His holy place. The weekly practice of reviewing the state of our lives in the knowledge that we will enter God's holy presence will have a profound impact on our lives.

'For this is the will of God, your sanctification ... that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor ... God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification'.(8) Vine tells us that 'sanctification is used of separation to God ... the separation of the believer from evil things and ways.'(9) This is what we've been called to; this is the will of God!

Holiness is something God desires of every believer, but His purposes don't stop there. He wants believers to enjoy what it means to be 'called as saints' - and so to live out lives of holiness alongside others. Look back at 1 Corinthians 1:2 and we'll notice that Paul reminds the saints that they are 'those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling'.

It takes us back to the Old Testament time when God brought Israel out of Egyptian slavery. They were called out that they might be His holy people, a holy nation, a people who together would worship Him. He separated them from their past lives, gave them His commandments for holy living and constituted them as His holy nation when they accepted His covenant and were 'separated' to Him.(10) This was all a shadow of what God does today with those released from the slavery of sin. He gives freedom so that we might, by subsequently obeying His laws and His commands, form His holy people. Read 1 Peter 2:4-10 again!

When Paul was writing his letters to the Church of God in Corinth he was dealing with some serious sins and unholy practices that were being accepted by the Church. At the outset, Paul reminded them that they were 'holy ones by calling.' It was only right that any blatant and tolerated sin was exposed and dealt with appropriately through discipline and ultimately excommunication of those caught up in the sin. The holiness of God's people had to be taken seriously. They had to learn what it meant to be sanctified in Christ Jesus. The same applies today. Those who are 'called as saints' have a personal, and collective responsibility, to demonstrate God's standard of holiness in a world that is so full of sin.

A good place to finish is Ephesians 1:18 - 'I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints'. God calls us to be 'saints'. Let's strive to be the holy ones He has called us to be.

Bible quotations from NASB

(1) see Acts 2:41-42, 1 Pet. 2:4-5, Eph. 2:19-22; 1 Cor. 1:2 (2) Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:2 (3) Acts 9:13 (4) Eph. 1:4 (5) 2 Cor. 7:1 (6) Phil. 2:12 (7) Heb. 3:1; 12:2 (8) 1 Thes. 4:3-7 (9) W.E. Vine, Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words (10) Deut. 7:6; Lev. 19:2; Ex. 19:5

WOODS, D. | Apr 2009
The Call Of Christ