...Paul always wrote " To
the sinners in Rome, Ephesus, Colossae, Galatia..etc "?????
I must have a defective bible as mine says we are "saints".
Philippians 4:21-22 (NASB)
[SUP]
21 [/SUP] Greet e
very saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren who are with me greet you.
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22 [/SUP] All t
he saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household.
Even those
saints in Corinth that were having sex with the temple prostitutes, those that were fighting amongst each other. ...taking each other to court...getting drunk at communion...eating all the food so that when the poor people came, there was no food left for them....that were as carnal as can be.....
they were still called saints.
1 Corinthians 1:2 (NASB)
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2 [/SUP] To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those wh
o have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, s
aints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their
Lord and ours:
have been sanctified = perfect passive
perfect tense = The basic thought of the perfect tense is that the progress of an action has been
completed and the results of the action are continuing on, in full effect. In other words, the progress of the action has reached its culmination and the finished results are now in existence
passive voice = this means that an action has happened to you, you are not involved in the action,. you receive the action
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (NASB)
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9 [/SUP] Or do you not know that the un
righteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals,
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10 [/SUP] nor thieves, nor
the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.
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11 [/SUP]
Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
Paul was telling the saints to identify with who you were now in Christ....not with your former ways of living.
Either we are either unrighteous ( unbeliever ) or justified/declared righteous in Christ ( believer ).
We were a sinner before Christ. Now we are a saint ( because of Him and our real selves are in Christ Jesus..the new creation, the inner man....the new man created in Christ Jesus in righteousness and holiness Eph 4:23-24 Col)
We have a new nature in Christ now. We are saints that sometimes sin.
It's all in the identity. Confess who you are in Christ - not what you were.
If we don't see that we are new creations in Christ, that He is our righteousness and life - we will never grow up! We can be a Christian for 50 years..even pastor a church for 60 years and still be a baby Christian.
2 Peter 3:18 (NASB)
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18 [/SUP] but
grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him
be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.