One phrase that I’ve heard over the years, and recently have detected even more, is when believers refer to themselves as “sinners saved by grace.” My understanding was, that this offered any Christian a nice way of witnessing to an unbeliever by telling them: “You’re a sinner, and I’m just a sinner saved by grace,” so that they would be less offended. But recently it seems to have taken hold as a genuine way for believers to refer to themselves in humility.

But this is not the designation I find in God’s Word. John tells us: “They believed in Him, and He gave them the right to become children of God.”¹ And even Jesus told those who believed in Him: “You are my friends if you do what I tell you to do. I no longer call you servants, because servants don’t know what their master is doing. But now I call you friends, because I have told you everything that my Father told me.”² And Paul the apostle addresses the believers in Rome as God’s “Holy people” or “saints.” We even sing a chorus in church now entitled, “I am a child of God.”

Yes! We should be humble in that we were nothing until the Holy Spirit called us and Jesus received us and God forgave us of all our sins and we were delivered from sin’s bondage. But we should also be thrilled that we are no longer sinners but part of the family of God.  So instead of introducing ourselves as sinners saved by grace, maybe we should think about saying we are children of God by grace. – Dr. Robert R Seyda