Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:

What an enchanting term this is for they who believe. It is marvelous full and descriptive term for those who are a part of God’s family. "Saints" has a wondrous ring to it. The word is a from of the word for "holy" in the Greek language and can be translated legitimately as "holy ones" or "sanctified ones". It speaks of the result of God’s applying the work of Jesus Christ to a believing individual, thus cleansing them and imputing the righteousness of Jesus to them as well. It is thus God declares us to be righteous on the basis of that finished work. Because we are righteous in God’s eyes, we can truly see ourselves (other believers) as being holy or sanctified by God.

In reality, then, being called a saint has nothing to do with how holy and righteous we live, with what we do or restrain ourselves from. This is why it says we are "called saints". The Roman Catholic notion of "Sainthood" goes very far astray in this area. People do not become saints because of some later work accomplished in their lives; believers ARE saints because of the work of God in salvation.

This is a wondrous title for believers, all believers. No believer is more righteous, in this sense, than any other believer, because no one has "more" of the righteousness of Christ than another. None has more natural or human claim to God’s grace than any other (all have precisely "zero" claim!). The concept that some are more "saintly" than others, and thus have earned more of God’s grace than they need (called supererogatory merit) is foreign to Scripture. All men need the same "grace" that all others need and all, having received the gift of salvation, are accepted equally "in the beloved".

We are so sorely tempted to think of not only our initial salvation (Regeneration & Justification), but also our ongoing Christian life (Sanctification) in terms of our own contribution to the effort. We are so caught up in ourselves that we think that something meritorious must come from us, else the "transaction" is somehow fraudulent.

Meritorious is the right word for it. That was one of the issues in the Reformation; that is, the issue of merited favor. The Reformers believed that nothing natural man can do can merit salvation, and I believe, rightly so! The idea of merit or earning blessing is foreign to the Grace of God because "merit" speaks of obligation on God's part and God cannot be obligated or controlled in any fashion. He is utterly and completely sovereign.

This is why we must be very careful about these ideas. We are Saints because we are in Christ, not because we have done anything to earn or merit the title.