Summary
Who Are the Saints?
The word "saint" in Hebrew refers to the sacred, the holy one, set apart; in Greek it carries the sense of a most holy thing. A saint, then, is one who has been set apart as holy unto the Lord. Scripture speaks plainly of saints: "Love the Lord, all you saints" Psalm 31:23, and Paul tells the Ephesians, "You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God" Ephesians 2:19. Saints are not the invention of any particular tradition; to deny them is to deny God's Word. Lutherans, therefore, gladly confess that saints are real.
The Lutheran Confessions teach that we honor the saints in three ways. First, in thanksgiving, giving God thanks for showing examples of His mercy, for revealing His will to save sinners, and for giving teachers and other gifts to the Church. Second, in the strengthening of our faith, as we look to Peter, forgiven after denying Christ, and Paul, forgiven after persecuting believers, and take courage that God's grace abounds more than sin. Third, in imitation of their faith—their willingness to preach the truth and serve the Lord at all costs. Stephen was stoned, Polycarp burned, William Tyndale strangled, Bartholomew flayed alive. The faithfulness of such men and women rightly stirs our own.
But honoring the saints is not the same as praying to them. We are commanded to pray, and to pray boldly: "This is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us" 1 John 5:14; "praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication" Ephesians 6:18. When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He directed them to the Father Matthew 6:9, not to another mortal. Scripture nowhere commands us to address the dead or to seek their intercession. Those who have died in Christ are spoken of as asleep in Him Matthew 27:52; they rest in the presence of their Savior, fully consumed with His glory, not with petitions rising from earth.
To turn to mortals as mediators is to turn from Christ as Savior—to assign His honor and mercy to men. The saints cannot mediate, because they themselves were sinners saved by the same grace we receive. If our righteousness depended on Peter's or Paul's merits, we would all be condemned with them. Christ alone is our intercessor and high priest, who "had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people" Hebrews 2:17. The unblemished Lamb is the one and only sacrifice for all sins, and we are called to "hold fast our confession" Hebrews 4:14.
So who, then, are the saints? Paul writes to the Colossians of "the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints" Colossians 1:26, and to the Romans, "To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints" Romans 1:7. The saints in Scripture are simply those to whom the gospel of Jesus Christ has been revealed—those called by God's grace into faith, who call upon Christ alone for forgiveness, righteousness, and salvation. The inheritance that defines a saint is stated clearly: "He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins" Colossians 1:13–14.
This means that in your baptism you were given sainthood. You were brought into the inheritance of all the saints, washed in the full righteousness of Jesus Christ, and called a child of God. Saints are not a distant elite assigned as patrons over various aspects of life; they are the baptized people of God, living and departed, made holy by Christ alone. As Paul prays, may you be "joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light" Colossians 1:11–12. For a fuller treatment, see "Who Are the Saints?" 9-5-21.
Video citations
- "Who Are the Saints?" 9-5-21 — If you would, please open your Bibles to Colossians, the first chapter will be studying out of Colossians, the first chapter. St. Christopher. This is the patron saint of Bachelors, Transportation,…