Commentary: Called to be saints

Ralph Fudge

If we truly believe in Christ, repent, and call on Him for salvation, we can then rest assured that we are saints on earth and will surely be in heaven when we die.”

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you are by definition a saint. And though I would never call or even think of myself as a saint, I acknowledge the truth of the Apostle Paul’s statement to the Roman believers. He said, “Among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints” (Romans 1:6-7).

Merriam Webster defines “saint” as “one of God’s chosen and usually Christian people.” This is a good and accurate definition except for the word “usually.” Any saint is a Christian. It is accurate to refer to Christians as “God’s chosen,” because every believer is chosen, or elected, by God to become a believer.

Every true believer in Christ has responded to the prompting of God's Holy Spirit. No one, of his own accord, decides to believe the gospel and trust Christ for salvation. God is sovereign, and everything is decided by Him. Salvation comes about when anyone, previously chosen by God, decides to respond to the Holy Spirit in belief.

So each believer should be eternally grateful to God for his election as a saint. And each believer is commissioned by the Lord to witness for Christ (Matthew 28: 19-20). This is in hope that others will respond to God’s will. Some people of limited knowledge will ask why they should bother witnessing if God has already chosen who will believe.

This will surely seem a contradiction to some, but we all need to recognize that this is one of several spiritual paradoxes. A paradox is something that is true while seeming impossible. It seems illogical because of our limited mental ability. But if one is wise, he has to realize and acknowledge his limited mental understanding of God's work and spiritual things. This is where trust in God comes in. Though something may not meet our standard of logic, we must realize that we cannot understand many of the things of God. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.”

We were not endowed by our Creator with adequate intelligence to understand many things, both spiritual and physical. And it is a big mistake to think one can understand everything. Many very bright people, so-called intellectuals, make this mistake. Many become atheists because they cannot accept as true anything that, to them, makes no sense. What everyone needs to do is recommended in Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.”

Instead of dismissing what Scripture tells us as illogical, let us trust all of it as absolutely true because the Bible contains the words and will of our Father in heaven. Our failure to understand some of it is no reason to dismiss it. We do not understand gravity, magnetism, electrostatic force, and many other physical phenomena, but we still accept them and make good use of them. So, let us realize that many things, physical and spiritual, we cannot understand. Instead of dismissing them as untrue, let us trust what God has chosen to reveal to us in His Word and believe it.

If we truly believe in Christ, repent, and call on Him for salvation, we can then rest assured that we are saints on earth and will surely be in heaven when we die.

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Ralph Fudge is the pastor of Big Ochlocknee Baptist Church in Coolidge, Ga., and has a Master’s degree in theology from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.