By: Victoria Mitchell
Our world is full of opposites and we usually see things on one end of the spectrum or the other. When we hear the terms sinner and saint, instant images come to mind. We tend to think of sinners as those who live a life of constant wrongdoing while saints are on the opposite end of the spectrum never doing anything wrong. With an incorrect understanding of what a sinner and saint are, it can be difficult to correctly see ourselves. This can make it difficult to understand our need for a savior or our identity in Christ.
Who Is a Sinner?
As much as we would think that it would be easy to see ourselves as a sinner, when we don’t have a correct view of what a sinner is, it is easy to assume that we aren’t really that bad and therefore not a sinner. A study from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University found that just 52 percent of adults in America believe that everyone sins and only 66 percent of professed Christians believe this.1 To make sure that we have a correct view of who is a sinner, we need to correctly define our terms. A sinner is defined as someone who sins.2 But what is sin? Sin is a transgression against the law of God.3 The Bible is clear that we all have fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). We can take a quick look at the Ten Commandments to see just how short we fall no matter how good we think we are. We may not be the worst of the worst by human standards, but we aren’t able to live up to God’s standards on our own.
Who Is a Saint?
When we think of saints, we quickly think of people like Mother Theresa or others who it seems to be hard to find fault with. We see our own faults and quickly dismiss the fact that we could also be called a saint. But is that what we see when we look in the Bible?
When we look at the use of the word saint or saints in the New Testament, we see the term being used not to describe perfect people, but of those who put their faith in Jesus Christ. Romans 8:27 is a good example of this. It says, “And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” The word translated as saints in this verse is hagios.4 When we look at the NIV translation of this verse, we see that hagios has been translated as “God’s people” instead of saints. Saints are not a special group of Christians that are set apart from the rest of us, they are God’s people, those who have chosen to put their faith in Jesus Christ. Once we have decided to follow Jesus, we have a new label. We are saints.
How Is This Possible?
How are we able to go from sinner to saint? When Jesus was crucified on the cross, we were able to take off our filthy clothes and put on clothes of righteousness. We get a picture of this in the Old Testament book of Zechariah. Zechariah has a vision in Zechariah 3 of Joshua the high priest standing before the Lord and being accused by Satan. Joshua was clothed in filthy garments before the Lord rebukes Satan, and the angel of the Lord orders that his filthy garments be replaced with pure vestments. Just as Joshua’s filthy garments or iniquity were removed from him and righteousness or pure vestments placed on him, the same happens to us when we choose to follow Christ. The Lord no longer looks at our sin, but sees Christ’s righteousness. Once we follow Jesus, our minds are renewed. We are no longer slaves to sin; we are a new creation. We have gone from sinner to saint and are able to confidently walk in our new identity.
Notes
1. Dr. George Barna, “2025 American Worldview Inventory—Report #8: Millions of American Christians Deny Their Sinfulness,” Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, released September 4, 2025, 1-2, accessed March 27, 2026, https://web.arizonachristian.edu/CRC/2025/BARNA_CRC_AWVI-2025-8-Americans-Christians-Deny-Their-Sinfulness.pdf.
2. Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “sinner (n.),” accessed March 27, 2026, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sinner.
3. Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “sin (n.),” accessed March 27, 2026, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sin.
4. James Strong, The New Strong’s Complete Dictionary of Bible Words (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1996), under “Greek Dictionary of the New Testament 40, hagios.”