Contrary to Religious Correctness

I am either a “saint” or a “sinner saved by grace.” Both are rather common but only one is biblical. Nowhere in the Bible do we see the phrase “sinner saved by grace.” In fact, “sinner” and “saint” are complete opposites and I would argue that it does the body of Christ a great disservice to use the term “sinner saved by grace.” For one, it forces one to compromise truth for political correctness (or in this case “religious correctness”). But more importantly, using the term “sinner saved by grace” completely disregards the power of what Jesus did on that cross. While the Bible says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation,” religious correctness says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is still essentially a sinner, but a saved one.”

It is phrases like “sinner saved by grace” that have facilitated the shallowness of the body of Christ. If God is okay with me as a sinner, why change? If “nobody’s perfect or holy” and “we are all going to fall,” why strive? One will never have the faith to attain something that one doesn’t believe is attainable. The sad truth is that many in the body of Christ simply do not believe living holy is possible.

Oswald Chambers identifies pride as one of the causes of this deception in My Utmost for His Highest (June 12):

“Pride is the deification of self, and this today in some of us is not of the order of the Pharisee, but of the publican. To say "Oh, I'm no saint," is acceptable to human pride, but it is unconscious blasphemy against God. It literally means that you defy God to make you a saint, "I am much too weak and hopeless, I am outside the reach of the Atonement." Humility before men may be unconscious blasphemy before God. Why are you not a saint? It is either that you do not want to be a saint, or that you do not believe God can make you one.”