After the cross believers in the epistles are called "saints" 62x times. A sinner is an identity. A saint is our identity in Christ.
Amen to that.
My thoughts are it's how God sees/looks at us after we place our faith in Jesus.
The word saint (hagios) means sacred, physically pure, morally blameless, ceremonially consecrated, Holy.
Saints in the N.T are those who belong to Christ so a saint is a Christian a true believer in Jesus.
We were not born saints but sinners and became saints when we placed our faith in Jesus, when we became reborn by our spiritual rebirth.
I don't think anywhere in the N.T a believer is referred to as a sinner. Yes Paul talks about himself.
1 Timothy 1:13-15
although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.
Notice he says 'Formerly'
Interestingly in Romans 7 Paul talks about his struggle with sin. He talks about the Paul that sins but he seems to indicate that it's the old Paul who sins and nit the new Paul.
Romans 7:17-25
But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Paul here is not making an excuse for his and neither should any of us.
I think what he is trying to bring out is that yes he does sin and when he does he is not his true self.
What is his true self?
He is a new man, a new man in Christ, a child of God. Paul's identity is the new man in Christ. A saint.
That's why he often refers to believers as saints. He does mention sins that believers were committing in his letters and it's obvious that he is not naive in the fact that saints still sin. But to me he is saying this is what you were and not what you are now.
You are are children of God, you are not sinners.
Identity is crucial.
We are saints who sometimes sin, not sinners who sometimes do right.
If we see ourselves as sinners then that's what we are and that is what we will do because it's an inevitable conclusion.
But if we see ourselves as saints we will see sin in a totally different light. It doesn't have to be inevitable to sin.
We are saints who sometimes sin, but we are still saints. Before the throne of God it does not change. We can still come before him as his children, his beloved, the Apple of his eye.
i myself when I have come accross people who refer to themselves as sinners because they problem with a certain character trait I say to them "No you are child of God a saint with a character trait in your life"
Identity is the key and as you say our identity is in Christ.
God himself says I will remember your sins no more. That's because of Jesus and because we are saints.
Just my limited thoughts.
Father bless you all, his kids and remember.
John 17:23
I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
Our father loves us as much as he loves Jesus.
What does that tell you.