All Christians Are Saints
The Catholic idea of sainthood is not biblical
Martin Scorsese has just produced an 8 part documentary on the saints of the Catholic church, so this is a good time to talk about the Catholic teaching on saints.
Also, as I was writing this, the Guardian published an article on the “saint-making process”. Here’s an excerpt:
“To be recognised as a saint, an individual must go through what is essentially a prolonged posthumous trial during which their physical and spiritual remains are assessed. The Vatican office responsible for this process is known as the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, and it has been in operation since 1588. The dicastery investigates whether the candidate was spiritually exemplary in life, and whether they have proven useful to the faithful in death. Crucially, and most controversially, every candidate must also have two scientifically inexplicable miracles posthumously attributed to them before they can be canonised.”
This is part of a series on some of the practices of the Catholic church. It’s meant to be a respectful outreach to my Catholic friends. A true friend will not withhold the truth; not if he really cares for you.
The first was about the Catholic practice of baptism, and last week’s was about the Catholic priesthood. Today it’s about the saints.
What is a saint, according to the bible?
In the New Testament and in the early church, the word “saints” is used many times, referring to the Christians. In Paul’s letters to the Romans, Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, the letters are addressed to the “saints” in those churches. From the context, we can tell that the word referred to all the believers. In the Greek, the word is “hagios”, meaning holy or sacred.
Christians are holy in God’s sight, because their sins have been forgiven and they have symbolically been clothed with Christ and his righteousness.
"For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. Galatians 3:27
These are living, breathing believers that Paul was writing to, to encourage them and to instruct them on how to live the Christian life.
Here’s a typical example – Romans 1:7
“To all of you who are God’s beloved in Rome and called to be saints: grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”. New Catholic Version
Again, the Greek word is “hagios”, holy, sacred – some translations say ‘saints’; some say ‘holy people’. The meaning is the same.
One of the best ways to know what a word means is to look at how it’s used.
“25 Presently, however, I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints. 26 For Macedonia and Achaia have resolved to make a contribution for the benefit of the poor among the saints in Jerusalem.” Romans 15:25
Think about that phrase “the poor among the saints in Jerusalem.” It’s clear enough – the saints are the Christians living in Jerusalem, and some of them were poor and needed help, or ministering to.
praying to the saints
According to catholic.com/magazine “we [Catholics] believe that we can go to them [the saints in heaven] to intercede for us with God… We trust that the saints will accept our requests for help and will present them to Christ for us.”
Asking someone to ‘intercede’ is to ask them to be a mediator. But as their own New Catholic Bible translation says, “.. there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus,..” 1Timothy 2:5
There is no example in the New Testament of any Christian praying to the saints that had already departed this life. We are to pray for the living saints that are our brothers and sisters in Christ.
key takeaway
Every Christian is a saint (hagios, holy) and a priest – chosen to be God’s holy people. That’s essentially what 1 Peter 2:9 says:
“But you are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people claimed by God as his own possession,” so that you may proclaim the praise of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” 1 Peter 2:9
That’s who we are, by God’s wonderful grace, when we believe and repent of our sins and are baptized into Christ and keep on believing and living for him.
What a beautiful and simple truth! Just imagine how different the daily life of believers would be if they fully embraced this reality! It is far too common for believers to hear from the pulpit, “let’s not forget that we all are sinners”. It’s just not true unless they want to revise that to say “once were” instead of “are”. Our true identity is that of a Holy Saint - why dwell in the past. We are new creations and should proudly live from that reality.
Thank you for firm representation and bold expression of this truth!
I had a fairly recent talk with some Catholic friends. They tried to argue that the praying to saints is no different than asking other believers to pray for you. I disagreed. We then progressed to them praying to Mary. At first I just asked them why they wouldn't go straight to Jesus. He died so they could go straight to Him.
Then I used Jesus's own analogy. We are the bride of Christ. What kind of marriage would we have, if every time we wanted something from our husband, we asked His Mom to ask Him for us? I think that made them think because the discussion ended there.