Saints is a very important word. Behind it is the meaning of separation. It is where the word holy comes from. God, of course, is holy, holy, holy (Isaiah 6:3). It is one of, if not the defining attribute of God. He is wholly separate from us. He is the creator; we are his creatures. He is without sin. And what happens when a sinner gets too close to God? Isaiah: “Woe is me!" he cried. I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts! We should all feel this overwhelming sense of our own unworthiness as we reflect on the holiness of God.

Realizing just how holy God is and how unworthy we are, we might expect Paul to address the believers in Philippi along these lines: to all the sinners in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi. Wouldn’t that be more appropriate? Wouldn’t that be more honest and closer to the truth? Isn’t that what we often see when we look at ourselves in the mirror. There, staring back at us, we see a sinner, not a saint.

It is true we are sinners through and through. And our sin runs deep, deeper than we care to admit and sometimes even realize. But if the sinner is all you see when you stare in that mirror, you have forgotten a most glorious truth. Saints are sinners who have been redeemed through Christ. Saints are sinners who have been redeemed through Christ. And Paul makes that clear. He does not just say to all the saints…who are at Philippi. No: to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, and those three words, in Christ Jesus, make all the difference. When we cry out, with Isaiah, "Woe to me, I am ruined,” it is as if the hands of our crucified Saviour touch us, burn our lips, and he says to us, You are saints! Yes, through the work of Christ on the cross, we have been transformed from sinners to saints. Claim who are you in Christ as your own in faith. You are not a sinner in Christ. You are a saint in Christ Jesus.

We so easily define ourselves by something other than how God defines us. We fail a test, we give into temptation, we lose our jobs, and we think, Failure—that is who I am, a failure. No, no you are not. You may have fallen, fallen hard even. You may not be all that great at your job, but none of those things define who you are. You are defined by Christ, by what he did for you on the cross! Don’t let your success define you either. Learn to see yourself, to think of yourself, to define yourself as God defines you—not a sinner, but a saint in Christ Jesus. And how dare you, in fact, define yourself in any other way. If God defines you as a saint in Christ Jesus, who are you, who am I to define myself in any other way?

When the Spirit impresses this great and glorious truth on our hearts and sears it on our minds, a beautiful thing happens. We begin to grow in holiness and sanctification. We begin to live like the saints in Christ Jesus God calls us. And this is not just something that passively happens to us; it is something we must, as saints in Christ Jesus, actively pursue (Colossians 3:12–14). When a sinner is transformed into a saint through Christ, Christ begins his work in that person’s life to live a life of holiness.