There is a debate going around about the term, "sinners saved by grace", this phrase is not found in the scriptures.
Paul referred to the people in the churches he wrote to as "saints."
I was once Catholic, the church taught that it was arrogant to call ourselves saints, they were only supposed to be declared so by the Catholic church. This practice was arrogance, allowing mere men to declare who is a saint and who is not. The Bible tells us who are saints, they are those who are born again through faith in Christ. We can call ourselves saints not because we are good but because Christ Who saved us is Good. He calls all born again believers saints.
Revelation 14:12
"Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus."
Psalm 30:4
"Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name."
1 Corinthians 14:33
"For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints,"
Romans 6
Believers Are Dead to Sin, Alive to God
6 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin.
Romans 6:17-20 "17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,
18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification."
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
Pauls letters begin like this:
To the saints at Colossi
To the saints at Ephesus
To the saints at Corinth
To the saints at Rome: Romans 1:7
To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Nowhere does God refer to born again believers as sinners.
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