The popular idea of a saint is one who, after a pious life lived on earth, has gone to heaven where he or she may be petitioned for special favours. They have to have been selected by the highest church authorities who require evidence of a pious life and the attestation of at least two miracles.
However Paul addresses the Saints in the Bible thus:
To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called saints1: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:7)
Paul is writing here to all the believers in Rome β those who are beloved of God, as defined elsewhere:
Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice (Psalm 50:5).
The sacrifice that God requires is stated in Psalm 51:17:
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
These are those whom God has promised to save (Psalm 34:18).
The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
These are the meek who are to inherit the earth:
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. (Matt. 5:5)
The saints referred to in the Bible are clearly selected by God and not by men β and the vast majority have not performed any miracles. Those believers who were alive in Old and New Testament times are now all dead and 'asleep' in the ground until the resurrection after the Lord Jesus Christ returns to the earth. For example, the prophet Daniel was told (Daniel 12:13):
But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.
Hebrews 11 gives a long list of the faithful 'saints' of old and concludes with:
And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. (vs. 39-40)
Therefore the saints of God are not in a position to make intercession for anyone, indeed there is only one intercessor available for the living faithful,
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. (1 Timothy 2:5)
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 2:5)
Nor is there any promise that the faithful will go to heaven. The Gospel preached to Abraham promised an immortal inheritance on this earth:
And the LORD said unto Abram, ... Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. (Genesis 13:14-15)
If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:29)
1 Here and in 1 Cor. 1:2, most translations add 'to be' in front of 'saints' but this is an unwarranted addition to the text and shows the bias resulting from nearly two thousand years of apostasy from the ...simplicity that is in Christ.
(2 Corinthians 11:3)
©2020 Martin Allen Cragg