There are saved people and there are wicked people, in my own personal opinion, all those that are lost will be found, for the Lord said, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10) and when the Lord is seeking for someone, He will find them.
All those who are saved are saints, “To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 1:7) The wicked are those that the wrath of God abides on, (John 3:36) and so I place this question before you today for your contemplation, are the saved sinners or saints?
Many I have spoken to over the years like to call us “saved sinners,” but I would tend to disagree with that statement, if I have lied in the past, and I have, does that make me a liar? Does one instance of performing an act make us into the totality of the moniker placed upon us? “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:44)
In today’s terminology that would read that Satan is a pathological liar, and most who live under this condition believe in the lies they speak, to them they are the truth. I cannot say if that is the mental construct of our adversary, but I can say assuredly that he could be called a liar and the statement would be true. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
Born-again believers sin, but does that make us sinners at heart, would that not defeat the purpose, in a sense, of those two classifications, the saved and the wicked. If we continue in sin we are not saved, that is self-evident, but if we live a life that is honoring God, lifting up the name of Jesus and then sin, do we automatically become wicked in His eyes again? And do we remain wicked until we repent of those sins as 1 John 1:9 says?
To say that we are saved sinners is to say that God has wicked children, children that sin on a fairly regular basis, and with malice of intent. The only other possible option I can see at this moment is that when we fall into temptation and sin, we are no longer accepted as sons until we repent, and I find no Scriptural reference for this whatsoever.
The wicked sin, intentionally and unintentionally, and it does not bother them, save for the moral constructs that man has set in place, they do not consider their sins in light of a Holy and righteous God, the born-again believer does. He has dishonored his Father in heaven, he has grieved the Holy Spirit, and he has broken his personal fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. This drives us to repentance, not for the fear of the possible punishment that might come from the Lord, but because we love Him.
A loving Father does not cast His errant children to the curb, He gently but firmly reminds them that they belong to Him, and always will.
We sin, but we no longer are slaves to sins, (Romans 6:6) and so it is incorrect to call ourselves saved sinners, save for using the term in a past tense. We are no longer sinners, we are saints, who because of our fallen nature, and our propensity to look back instead of forward, occasionally sin. Anyone who sins on a regular basis and with intent is not saved, the old man sometimes dies slowly, but die he does, not all at once and not completely until we are glorified, but the life that does not repent is not the life of the born-again believer, for the word repent means to turn away from completely.
I liken the words “saved sinner” to that of “carnal Christian,” they do not exist, but have been invented to assist those who profess Christ only with their lips, and far too many who stand behind the pulpit on Sunday morning use both of them to attempt to make certain individuals feel better about themselves. You cannot be partially crucified with Christ, and you cannot be partially born-again. You are either wicked or saved, you are either an unrepentant sinner, or a repented saint.
