What Is A "Saint"?

Immediately after the death and burial of Pope John Paul II, talk began about making him a saint of the Church. Of course, according to the rules of the Catholic Church, it takes much time and investigation before anyone can be canonized as a saint.
In 2002, the Pope bestowed sainthood on Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, the controversial founder of the conservative Catholic organization Opus Dei. Sainthood for the Spanish priest was bestowed just 27 years after his death – one of the shortest waiting times in the Vatican's history. So swift canonizations are very possible in the Catholic Church.
What is a "saint"? Could I be one? Could you be one? The Greek word for "saint" in the New Testament is hagios and Strong's Concordance says that it means: a sacred, pure, blameless and holy person. Webster's dictionary gives the established church definition of a "saint": 1. one officially recognized as preeminent for holiness through canonization or 2. one of the spirits of the departed in heaven.
The Roman Catholic Church down through the ages has made a special point of recognition of particularly holy persons as "Canonized Saints of the Church". The canonizing process usually requires a long study of the person involved with special church recognized "proofs" of holiness. Catholics have patron saints for their names, for each day of the year, and for particular kinds of activity.
My given name is "Lucian". I am a junior since my father's name is also "Lucian". My paternal grandparents had nine children, and when they could not decide on a name for my father, they went to the Catholic calendar and used the name of "St. Lucian", the saint for January 7th, my father's birthdate.
Patron saints have been designated for many things: St. Christopher for travelers, St. Appolonia for dentistry (my profession), etc. It is believed that we should invoke these patron saints for special help in particular areas.
Recognizing the lives of especially holy people is all well and good. We can learn a lot about living the Christian life from their example.
But the point I want to make here is that ALL CHRISTIANS, by Bible definition, are SAINTS. I am a saint – I don't have to die first and be canonized. If you are a Christian, you are a saint – you don't have to die first and be canonized. When a person living apart from God recognizes his inability within himself to live a right life, repents and accepts Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of his life, God the Father does a miraculous thing – He creates a Christian! He creates a SAINT! God creates a new person to take the place of the old. God places His very nature, His divine nature, right within the Christian SAINT. Jesus Christ comes to dwell in a living union within the human spirit of the Christian. The old "sinner" is dead. The new SAINT is born again. This happens once and forever within the person. The "sinner" is dead forever. The SAINT is alive forever.
"When someone becomes a Christian, he becomes a brand new person inside. He is not the same anymore. A new life has begun!...For God took the sinless Christ and poured into Him our sins. Then, in exchange, He poured God's goodness into us!" (2 Corinthians 5:17,21 Living Bible)
"I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. " (Galatians 2:20)
The newly created SAINT instantly becomes a member of the Family of God. He is a Child of God with God's Family nature. Since the Christian contains Christ in a living union, the Father sees His new child as righteous, not by the child's own doing, but because he contains the righteousness of Christ. He is a human living SAINT. He does not have to die and be canonized as a SAINT through his good and holy works.
Yes, I do not have to be canonized as a saint – nor does Mother Teresa, nor does Billy Graham, nor does John Paul II. It is not necessary to canonize YOU as a saint if you are a Christian. We are all SAINTS because of Christ within sealing our new divine nature forever.
I know that the Christ nature within me is incorruptible. I know that when God looks at me, He sees this incorruptible nature, Christ in me. This means that when God put His nature in me, there was no more He could do for me to make me His child, His SAINT, than by this. Every born again believer can receive or get no more of God than he got the moment he was reborn. The Christian cannot become any more SAINTLY. You cannot add to the nature, you cannot make it more, and neither can you take away from it. It is total. The Christian is a total Child, a total SAINT. Once birthed by God, there is no more a believer can receive.
This must not be confused, however, with the manifestation of that nature. Many believers who have Christ within them are poor at manifesting Him. It must be finally fixed in the Christian's mind that to God he is a SAINT by the new birth, and no more can be given. On the other hand, MUCH MORE CAN BE DONE BY THE CHRISTIAN TO MANIFEST CHRIST'S NATURE WITHIN HIM.
How does this take place? By a growth in awareness. The Holy Spirit comes as a Teacher to point us to Jesus Christ within. The Holy Spirit within your mind takes all of the circumstances and situations of your life and uses them for good to point you to the guidance and power of Christ within. You must come to the knowledge of who you are – a SAINT – and grow in constant awareness of your Family status made secure by the indwelling Christ. Then you will grow in manifestation of who you are.
BUT THE MANIFESTATION OF WHO YOU ARE DOES NOT DETERMINE WHO YOU ARE! Who I am – a SAINT in union with Christ – is by the gift and grace of God. What I manifest is by my awareness, trust and love of this Christ within me.
If you want to talk about manifestations and works of "holy" people on this earth and call them "saints", that is one approach. But I believe that this approach tends to mask the reality and the perspective of our awesome new birth in Christ.
While I am on this earth, I will never manifest Christ perfectly. And neither did Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, neither did Mother Teresa, neither did John Paul II, neither will Billy Graham, neither will YOU. There are too many influences of the world, the flesh and the devil to cause us to slip up. We don't want to, but we will slip up, we will neglect to trust Christ for guidance and fall on our faces in our own weakness. As long as God allows me to live a human life, I will be an imperfect SAINT! But the correctional consequences of my slips into sin are there to force me to grow in Christ.
Yes, there are more saints around in the world than you may have thought. A sinner can become a saint very simply – by choosing Christ and being born again. A saint can never become a sinner by nature again.

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