Death to Life, Sinner to Saint

Matthew 9:12 - When Jesus heard that, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick."

Glory to God for what He has done! We are called from death to life and from sinner to saint. As we live in this world without the full knowledge of God, without relationship with the God who has created us, we are dead. Our sin has caused this death. When we allow Jesus full access to our lives we are made alive through His righteousness. We become alive in Christ.

Jesus is our Jehovah Rapha, our God who heals. He is our Great Physician. He raises us up back to life and we are healed. There are so many accounts of Jesus healing blind eyes, the lame and deaf, casting out demons, causing men to speak again...and raising the dead. I believe He can still do those things today if He so desires, but what's more important is the spiritual raising we can attain. 

We walk around this life not getting all the full benefits of a life in Christ and a God who wants to bless. In this world we are spiritually dead and spiritually sick...in need of a Great Physician to heal us. All He wants is for us to come to Him and admit our weaknesses, our sin, our guilt. Give them to Him and He will heal us. He will set us apart. We join the ranks of others who have done the same. A miracle has taken place in our lives...we have been raised from the dead. 

Jesus is moved with compassion over the multitudes in the world who live each day with the gravest of illness--being spiritually dead. They wander aimlessly like sheep without a Shepherd (Matthew 9:36). We as a Church don't see all the miracles that took place. We hear of one here and there, but something's changed. What we sometimes forget is that one of the greatest miracles takes place within ourselves when we receive Christ! 

Instead we walk around in our dead bodies. I heard once about long ago what was done when a person did something terribly wrong. To inflict punishment on them a dead body was tied to their back. That body would rot and putrify upon that live body. It was a constant reminder of the grave thing that person did. The disciple Paul probably had this in mind as he said, "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:24)  It is a bondage, a captivity, to the will of the flesh and not the spirit. But the good news is we can be delivered from this body of death through the blood of Jesus Christ.

Death versus life? Sinners or saints? Which is the most appealing? Jesus came to heal the sick. Not one of the men He called to become disciples had any good in them. He mingled with sinners, much to the irritation of the so-called religious leaders. In fact, Jesus called these leaders hypocrites, fools and a brood of vipers because their attitudes did not convey who they claimed to be. There isn't a man, woman or child who is greater than the other. God is willing to receive all. And when a relationship with Christ begins we are counted as equals in His eyes. The death we lived in our sins before Christ melts away and brings to us life and even the title of saint.

This week we heard Pope John Paul II is on the road to becoming a saint because a miracle occurred in his name. I'm not saying Jesus would call him a hypocrite, fool or viper...please understand that. But let me say that we are all called saints of God if we have accepted Jesus and are in relationship with Him, when we allow Him to remove that body of death and receive life. 1Corinthians 1:2 points this out: To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.

The key is calling on the name of Jesus Christ as Lord. The Greek definition of the word saint is a most holy thing. Although this doesn't sound like something we could lay claim to because it seems blasphemous, through Christ and in Christ we can because we have been made holy with the righteousness of God through Christ. We don't deserve it, but God gives it. And praise God, it's for all people. However, we can only proclaim this with humble reverence, recalling in our hearts what Jesus has done for us. 

Saints are a group of people set apart for God…those who are a peculiar people who have been called out of the darkness and into His marvelous light (1Peter 2:9) and have by faith received Christ as Lord. Not by what we've done to receive it, but just accepting His gift. Then we have had our own miracle...we are healed and raised from the dead of this world, not by our power. It's not a title we can just give ourselves (or our mothers!); it's a title given to us through what Christ did for us and through our acceptance. 

There are millions of unidentified saints in this world right now and there were millions in the past and will be millions more in the future. Jesus calls all men unto Him. We can all be lifted out of bondage, made alive in Christ, share in His life and considered saints if we are in relationship with Him. Ephesians 2:18-19 - For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.

We can all partake in in our own miracle of being raised from the dead. Just call out for God's mercy and become a living sacrifice, worthy to be called a saint! Death or life; sinner or saint? It's up to you.

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  Jesus said... "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live." (2Corinthians 5:21, John 11:25)