What comes to mind when you hear the word “saint”? If you’re a New Orleans football fan it may be their NFL team – The Saints. Or you may think of a place like St. Augustine, Florida (which is named after the theologian and church leader from 400 A.D, Augustine of North Africa). Another well known figure from church history is St. Francis, the Italian mystic and servant of the poor who began what became the Franciscan order. (San Francisco, is named after him.) Perhaps you’re familiar with the hymn, “When the saints go marching in” — a joyful song about the saved entering heaven.
This article is about the New Testament use of the word. “Saint” (hagios in Greek) is related to the verb, to sanctify, meaning to set someone / something apart for God and His holy purposes.
If someone called you a saint, how would you respond? Some believers would reply, “I’m no saint!” because they would be thinking of the ways they still fall short of God’s righteous standards. But according to the Bible, all true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are saints! The word “saint” is applied to Christians 62 times in the New Testament. For example, in the greetings to the saints in Rome, Corinth, Philippi, Ephesus, and Colossae.
This is important because your perception of your identity will affect your values and behavior, for better or for worse.
It’s also crucial to see how Scripture emphasizes our identity in Christ as foundational to living the Christian life. Again, referring to the apostle Paul’s letters, Ephesians 1-3 is doctrinal, 4-6 is practical. Take Ephesians 2:10 as a single verse example of this pattern: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
Therefore, consider basic steps to live more consistently as a saint.
1. Become a saint.
Being a saint is not a universal status or an automatic blessing. When we are born in the lineage of Adam we arrive on planet earth spiritually dead and in need of redemption (Eph. 2:1-3).
When you are convicted of your lost condition, believe the gospel, and receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are born into God’s family of saints. This is not based on our works, but upon Christ’s finished work on the Cross and His resurrection:
“But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:5-7).
“And by that will [God’s will] we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb. 10:10).
So you become a saint through your new birth. God’s word that brings redemption is not only life-giving, it is holy: “…since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.” The new birth is by God’s holy Word, through the life-giving Holy Spirit of God.
2. Believe you are a saint.
You are a saint because of your new identity.
Although we have a variety of ways we identify ourselves (our name, family, etc), our essential identity is based on our spiritual rebirth. We are born again by the Holy Spirit (John 3:3-16) and we are now called saints. Our regenerated spirit has a new nature, as Ephesians 4:24 declares, “…put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”
An example of our new identity is that, since we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we individually and collectively are God’s temple. “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor. 6:19,20; cf. 1 Cor. 3:16).
Only a sinner?
Before we move on the the second half of this article, notice a common obstacle to believing you are a saint. The line of a familiar hymn declares, “I’m only a sinner saved by grace.” That will prompt some “amens.” But slow down. Yes, we still sin sometimes (and repent of it), but we are not just sinners anymore. Jesus used the term “sinners” to identify the unsaved: “But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same” Luke 6:32,33). So a sinner more accurately pertains to those who are under sin’s authority.
We are so much more than sinners: we are saints, set free from the authority of sin (Rom. 6:1,6,15-23). We are children of God, joint heirs with Christ, temples of the Holy Spirit, and so much more! Can I get an amen? So how about this concession: for every time you refer to yourself as a sinner, refer to yourself 100 times in ways that are more positive, accurate, and spiritual … such as “In Christ Jesus, I am a saint.”
Why bring this up? Because your perceived identity will affect your values and behavior for better or for worse.
That leads us to the privilege and potential to…
3. Behave like a saint.
The dignity of being a saint is foundational to the responsibility of living accordingly. But here responsibility is our response to His ability (in us).
For example, The apostle Peter exhorts us to live “as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy’ (1 Pet 1:14,15).
We are called to be countercultural, to live according to God’s will, to walk in newness of life. We should be positively different in how we speak, how we act, in our handling of money, sex, food, alcohol, etc.. In other words, we are to be salty because we are the salt of the earth; we are to let our light shine—instead of being under a basket—because in Christ we are lights in this dark world (Matt. 5:13-16.
But we ask, How can I live as a saint more consistently? For simplicity sake consider two fundamental responses to live saintly day by day.
When the word “saint” is abbreviated it is spelled St. Remember and use the following two words that start with these letters: surrender and trust.
Surrendering to God’ will
Scripture urges us to “sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.” Notice this is directed to believers. We confess Christ as Lord when we are saved, but we—as saints—are called to more consistently surrender.
Romans 12:1,2 is a vital exhortation: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (ESV).
So our yielding to God as believers should be wholehearted and ongoing. This is crucial to letting the Holy Spirit fill our soul and empower us for dignified living (Eph. 5:18).
Trusting God’s enablement
As we are saved by grace through faith, this is how we are to live as saints. As “you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him…” (Col. 2:6,7).
We are prone to trust in our own good intentions or will power, but this will always let us down (Romans ch. 7). We need to live by supernatural resources. And these resources are ours through our union with Christ. Paul testified in Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. ” Is that our testimony? Notice is says we live by faith; we are to trust, to depend on Christ to live in and through us by the power of God’s indwelling Spirit. We are to abide in Him, because apart from this relationship we can do nothing in terms of holy living and fruitful ministry (John 15:1-8).
Surrendering and trusting are grace-enabled ways to cooperate with God in our progressive sanctification (2 Cor. 7:1; Eph. 4:1).
Therefore, I encourage myself and you: believe your are a saint and behave like you are a saint more consistently. 1 Thessalonians 5:23, 24 gives us this blessing and promise:
“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.”
“When the saints go marchin’ in” can be not only a future hope, but a present witness of God’s children who live according to their new identity in Christ.
For further teaching on this topic see the Grace Note The Apostle Paul: Chief Sinner or Saint? and the book I wrote with Bryan Miller, The Worthy Walk.
Copyright by John B. Woodward 2026. Permission is granted to reprint this article for non-commercial use if credit is given to the author and GraceNotebook.com. Bible quotations are from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson.