“You’re a saint.” You’ve probably heard that phrase applied to someone who just did something really nice. Someone just agreed to help you clean up your shed this weekend, and you tell them, “Thank you so much! You’re a saint!” 

Even though this phrase may feel a little archaic, it captures one of the few ways we use the word saint today: someone who is extra holy or extra nice. Or we may think that a saint is a super godly person from the past, or maybe they are the older, super-spiritual men and women in the church.

But then here comes Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:2 where he opens his letter with these words:

“To the church of God at Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called as saints, with all those in every place who call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord—both their Lord and ours.” (CSB)

Paul opens this letter to a church filled with dysfunction (see for example 1 Cor 5), and he calls them saints. Paul does not address this letter just to the extra holy people in the church. He addresses the letter to the whole church and says they are called as saints. 

In 1 Corinthians 1:1, Paul has just used a similar phrase for himself: “Paul, called as an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will” (CSB). Paul is called as an apostle. The Corinthian church is called as saints, God’s holy people. Even this dysfunctional church remains God’s holy people. They are called by God to be saints. 

The rest of verse 2 helps fill in what it means to be a saint:

Saints are those who call upon Jesus as Lord.

Paul writes that the Corinthians are called as saints along with everyone else who calls on Jesus’s Name. Everyone who trusts in Christ alone for salvation and submits to him as Lord is a saint. Becoming a saint isn’t something you earn by doing extra holy stuff. Becoming a saint is what happens when you call on the Lord Jesus Christ to rescue you. You have a new identity. 

Sainthood is a calling, not an achievement.

Paul also describes the Corinthians as “saints by calling”. God had called them to be saints. This doesn’t mean they were called to achieve sainthood anymore than Paul’s calling as an apostle meant he had to achieve his apostleship (he’ll let the Corinthians know he is an apostle only by the mercy of God, see 2 Cor 4:1). 

The calling here refers to the effectual call of God that calls us into fellowship with Christ (1 Cor 1:9). In 1 Corinthians 1:26-30, Paul connects the believer’s calling with God’s choosing (see also Jude 1; Rev 17:14). When they consider their calling, they will see that God has chosen what is weak and foolish to shame the strong and powerful of the world. We are saints only because we are chosen by the sovereign grace of God. We are called by God to be set apart as his people.

Both God’s sovereignty and human responsibility are in view here. God calls us to be saints as we call on the Name of the Lord. God’s call always comes first (this is the biblical pattern; for example, think about Abraham who was called out by God before he called upon God, Gen 12:1-3; 13:4). Yet, saints also call upon the Name of the Lord. Saints are called by God as his holy ones who call upon Jesus’s Name. 

In this way, saints have a holy position before God because of Jesus.

A saint is a sanctified person. Paul refers here not to our progressive growth in Christ, but to our position before God. Positionally, everyone who is united to Jesus by faith is sanctified and set apart to God as a saint (a holy one). 

Therefore, a saint is a person who is set apart to God by merits of their union with Jesus. They are called to be saints because they are called into fellowship with Jesus (1 Cor 1:9). Every believer is a saint. Every believer belongs to the holy people of God. To be a saint means to be set apart to God because you belong to Jesus. This is now your identity in Christ. 

Therefore, Christian, you are a saint. You might recoil at that or laugh it off as just archaic language. But Paul used the term for the Corinthians (and other churches) to encourage them that they are God’s holy people and to motivate them to live out this new identity that they have in Jesus. 

Like the church in first-century Corinth, we are often pretty clunky at living this out. Yet even in our continued struggle with sin, we remain God’s people called to become what we already are—holy. In Jesus, we are saints. Let’s live like it by God’s grace.