Lowering The Standard

Saints or Sinners?

Last month we talked about how the standard of holiness is being lowered by exalting the sins of the prophets and great men of the Bible. It seems strange that those who are supposedly laboring to prepare a people for the Lord would want to bring the standard of holiness down. Many men are doing this without realizing what they are doing and that is the reason for this article - to point out that the message intended is not always the message the people receive.

One of the great sins of Israel that brought on God's judgment was the failure to make clear the difference between the holy and the profane, between the clean and the unclean:

Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. (Eze 22.26)

It is also one the major sins of our day. Many "Christians" call themselves "sinners, saved by grace", which is a confusing statement. It is confusing because it doesn't tell the whole story. We WERE sinners before we were saved, cleansed, washed, sanctified, accepted in the beloved, adopted into God's family, made joint-heirs with Christ, etc. We are a ROYAL PRIESTHOOD, a NEW CREATURE and a HOLY people, not to be confused with a sinful, wicked, unregenerate person. Yet there are some who will vigorously defend themselves as "sinners", yet "saved sinners."

Their logic is that we still sin after we are saved, so therefore, we are still sinners. One sin, they say, makes you a sinner. Let's apply that logic to something else and see if it works. I might be capable of driving a truck down the highway without running into the ditch, but that doesn't make me a truck driver. I might be able to fly an airplane for a short time, but that doesn't make me an airline pilot. I might give someone some medicine that makes them feel better, but that doesn't make me a doctor. As a Christian, I might commit a sin, but it isn't my daily practice and lifestyle. A "sinner" sins continually and habitually - that is his life and practice. A "saint" may commit a sin, but he doesn't live that way continually.

While the motive for mixing things up like this is to appear humble and honest, the real effect is that the difference between the holy and the profane is blurred. A real "sinner" sees no need to repent because those he thought were "saints" are as bad off as he is by their own testimony. The "saints" see no need to try to live holy because they are told they are still "sinners" like the drunkard and the harlot, no matter how clean they live. Also, believing they are still a sinner makes it somewhat easier to commit sin without feeling so bad about it. The bottom line is that the standard has been lowered. Why would anyone who claims to be saved defend themselves as being still a "sinner"?

Why not stick to the Bible? There is never any confusion there on this matter. Saints are the children of God who have been born again of the Spirit of God. That is the way they are referred to throughout the New Testament in the epistles. Sinners are those who love the works of darkness and know not God, being condemned in their sin. God meant for the prophets of Israel to distinguish the difference between the holy and the profane. He means for men of God in 1994 to do the same.

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