What Makes a Saint According to Christian Doctrine?

Today is All Saints' Day according to the Roman Catholic calendar of events but is the Roman Catholic aware of what is really a saint?  The doctrine of the Roman Catholic institution is that to become a saint one must live a live of good works and faithful service to Rome and with some miracles, the Pope then canonizes the person like the recent canonization of the late John Paul II from the status of "blessed" to "saint".  The word saint comes from the Greek word "hagios" which means "consecrated to God".  So it becomes a very tough issue for a Christian to defend one's status as a saint.  The Bible mentions the word "saint" many times as living beings, not dead humans!  In the King James version, we get the word saint 98 times!  Hmmm maybe that is why the Roman Catholic Bibles tend to remove the word "saint" and replace it with "God's people" and when Catholic apologists try to argue, they are arguing with synonyms as antonyms.  The Greek has them called as "hagios" or saints.  Every true believer is a saint and that there is such evidence of what a saint really is.  There are living saints and dead saints, but they are saints nonetheless.  No official canonization, just faith in the Lord Jesus that makes a person from a lost sinner to a saint.

Presbyterian preacher, the late Pastor Vernon McGee commented on the matter about saints.  Here's what it says commenting on Romans 1:7, "'Called to be saints' should simply be 'called saints' - the very verb to be is not in the better manuscripts  They were 'called saints' and this is the name for every believer.  A saint is not one who has been exalted: a saint is one who exalts Jesus Christ. A  person becomes a saint when Jesus Christ becomes his Savior (and Lord, emphasis mine).  There are only two classes of people in the world- the saints and the ain'ts.  If you are not an ain't, then you're a saint.  And if you are a saint, you have trusted Christ.  It is not your character that makes you a saint, it's your faith in Jesus Christ and the fact that you are set apart for Him.  As Paul said of himself in the beginning, he was a bondslave of Jesus Christ."  Obviously Vernon McGee was no Antinomian and rather taught of true faith, faith that results to works.

So they ask, "What about those who say they are Christians but sinfully?  Do not tell me they are saints?"  In truth, they are not saints.  No true Christian can ever love wickedness and sin all the want.  They will fall into sin but they will never, ever live sinfully.  They can fall into carnal states but they cannot remain carnal indefinitely.  In fact, John Calvin was right when it said that the saints will certainly persevere to the end even if they might stumble down as some Christians do have their own set of problems.  And yet still, in the end they endure to the end.  The fruit of being a saint is as said, because such a person is set apart for Christ,, they exalt Christ, they are made saints by faith in Christ and not by their works, this faith is authentic and brings forth good works.  A saint as said only does good because of their authentic faith which good works validate, not by their own but God works in them as said in Philippians 2:13 that it is God that works in the believer, not they alone.