We've all heard the saying in Christian culture that goes: "We're all just sinners saved by grace." This saying? It's wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. This saying is such a huge misconstruction of who we are as Christians. In the Book of Hebrews, chapter 10, verses 8 through 10 say, "First he said, 'Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them'—though they were offered in accordance with the law. Then he said, 'Here I am, I have come to do your will.' He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (NIV).
So, if you go around saying, "I'm just a sinner saved by grace" or "I'm just a sinner," you are negating all that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross that day made us to be. As God's precious sons and daughters, we are holy. That is how we should be primarily identifying ourselves as Christians. Our identity is not in our sinfulness but in our holiness. When we make our identity about our sin, and not about the holiness we're given through Jesus' sacrifice, we make it so easy for sin to slip into our daily lives. We invite sin into our lives and even justify it. Sin can even become a natural feeling when we make our identity in our sinfulness. Now, let's not get things mixed up here. Just because we should identify ourselves in our holiness does not mean that we don't sin. That'd just be a flat out lie. William Shakespeare, in his play "Henry VIII," says it beautifully when he says, "We all are men, in our own natures frail, and capable of our flesh; few are angels." We're going to sin, that's a fact. But when we make the choice to identify ourselves in our holiness, we gain a new concept of ourselves and a new outlook on who we are as Christians.
So today, I choose to identify by my holiness. I know I'm going to sin, but I'm not going to justify it because it is not who I am. Who I am is a daughter of the King — a holy and beloved child of God.
I am not my sinfulness.
