For many centuries some Christians have sought to honor especially godly deceased followers of Jesus whom they have called “saints.” Sometimes Christians, figuring that the “saints” are still alive with Christ and members of his mystical body, have prayed to them and sought their protection and intercession with God. But what is a “saint” according to the New Testament? Is it helpful to seek their intercession?
The expression “saint” is simply an English noun that means “holy one.” It is the way English versions of the Bible often render a word that refers to people who are set apart from everyone else because they are special to God and close to him.
After God graciously rescued his people from slavery in Egypt, he led them to the foot of Mount Sinai where he constituted them as a special nation.
“Now therefore,” he told them through Moses, “if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5-6).
Every man, woman, and child in the whole nation would function as a priest to the rest of the world, showing the surrounding nations the character of the one God, who had created them all. So, in a sense, everyone in the group was “holy.” Everyone was a “saint.”
The prophet Isaiah used similar language for all the people of Israel who survived the coming time of judgment. “And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem…” (Isaiah 4:3). The Psalmist, likewise, could address all Israel as the Lord’s “saints” (Psalm 34:9), and in Daniel, the “saints of the Most High” are all God’s people, protected by him from the oppression of the godless nations (Daniel 7:18). It is to these “saints” that God eventually gives his kingdom (Daniel 7:21-22).
God’s “saints,” then, are set apart as God’s people because God has taken the initiative to rescue them, protect them, and give them the hope of living in his eternal kingdom. In the Old Testament all this applied mainly to people within the nation of Israel.
The New Testament picks up this language and uses it for the new people of God, no longer centered on Israel but consisting of individuals from many different cultures, customs, and ways of life. What joins them together is their union, by faith, with Jesus, the anointed King of God’s kingdom. Just as in the Old Testament people became “saints” at God’s gracious initiative, so in the New Testament union with Christ and membership among God’s people come from God.
Peter, echoing the language of Exodus 19:5-6 could describe the large Christian population of western and central Asia Minor (today’s Turkey) as “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession” whose mission was to “proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). Similarly, Paul could write to all the Christians in Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, and Colossae and address them as the “saints” in those places (Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 1:1; Ephesians 1:1; Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:1).
All these New Testament texts (and there are many others) assume that a person becomes a “saint” when they become a Christian. Becoming a “saint” is something that God has done to the Christian, not a title that the Christian has earned through especially virtuous conduct.
Right after warning the Christians in Corinth against continuing to practice various forms of sexual immorality, idolatry, greed, drunkenness, verbal abuse, and theft, he supports his warning with the statement, “You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11). The word “sanctified” is just the verbal form of the adjective “holy” and the noun “saint.”
Paul was effectively saying to these immature believers, “Don’t continue to live in these ungodly ways, because God has already made you saints.” He was telling them to live into their identity as the special people of God whom God had called to show his character to the world by the way they lived.
The New Testament gives some evidence, however, that there is a special group of Christians who are “Saints” among the saints. In Ephesians 3:5 Paul says that God revealed the mystery of the gospel to “his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.” In Greek, the word “holy” in this phrase is identical to the term “saint.” Here Paul simply uses that word as an adjective rather than a noun. The way Paul ordered the Greek words in this phrase, moreover, makes it likely that he only intended the term “holy” to go with “apostles” rather than with both “apostles” and “prophets.” This probably means that he considered the apostles (including himself) to be “holy” in some sense that does not apply to other Christians or to the prophets.
In the preceding paragraph, Paul hinted at the sense in which the apostles occupy a special or “holy” place within God’s people. In Ephesians 2:20 he says that “the household of God” is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.” Paul probably placed the apostles in the metaphorical foundation of the church because they were eyewitnesses to Jesus’ life, teachings, death, and resurrection.
The church is founded on their witness, and they are the touchstone for deciding what is true about Jesus and the gospel. In the words of the apostle John, “that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). In God’s grace and providence, we have their witness to the gospel preserved for us in the Scriptures.
The apostles are not “saints,” therefore, because they were more virtuous than other Christians but because they heard and saw what Jesus really did and said, and they can testify reliably to what it all means. It seems fitting, then, to refer to Saint Matthew, Saint John, or Saint Paul. The title “Saint” for an apostle could be a biblically appropriate way of referring to the reliability of their foundational witness to Jesus and the gospel.
The New Testament offers no example of someone praying to a deceased saint or seeking their protection or intercession. It clearly teaches, however, that God’s Spirit “intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:27). With God’s Spirit aiding us in our prayers there is no need for us to seek out any other intercessor. He knows us in our weakness and understands the will of God in all its wisdom (Romans 8:26-27).
Christians have observed All Saints Day at least since the fourth century. It is a good day for all believers to celebrate the grace of God in calling them to be “saints,” to reflect on how they can more faithfully live out that calling, and to bring their petitions to God’s Spirit who, since they are saints, intercedes for them. It is also a good day to spend time reading the Scriptures and giving thanks to God for their historical reliability, preserved, by God’s grace, through “the holy apostles.”
Frank Thielman serves as the Presbyterian chair of divinity at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama. He is an ordained minister in the PCA. He is married to Abby, who he credits with providing helpful feedback on this article.