We have a crazy language. The incongruent relationship between fun and funny is only one example of how opposites can live together quite comfortably. Fun things are not always funny and funny things are not necessarily fun. Someone dressed in formal attire tripping while going up stairs and landing splattered all over the stairs is not fun, but often the reaction is to laugh. Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton were masters of the funny fall. Amusement parks are advertised as fun. Is a “fun house” really fun? Roller coasters are supposed to be fun, but blood-curdling screams are what you hear, not laughter. I could never see why I should pay someone to scare me half to death and call it fun. And then we have funny, meaning peculiar. We usually do not eat food that smells funny. Lies are revealed when the details in the story seem funny that they don’t match.
Multiple meanings can also be problematic. Church is both a sacred space and the saints (separated ones) that occupy the space. We are taught that it’s not the building, it’s the people—yet we call the space and the activities within it “church.” We are the church; we go to church; we do church. Why can’t we have different words for things? Is there a limited supply and we simply ran out? It’s no wonder people say that English is so difficult.
It’s funny (peculiar) how we accept incongruities without an eyeblink in secular contexts, but the concept of “both/and” is so difficult in biblical contexts. Can saints (separated ones, not statues) be holy and also be hypocrites? Saints and sinners at the same time? Ouch! I’m always compelled to explain when I say saints. Believers are sanctified and separated (saints) by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimonies, filled with the Holy Spirit and power, but still occupy a body of flesh and an unrenewed mind struggling with the continuous process of sanctification until their final breath. We don’t always get beyond temptations unscathed. That does not take away their status as believers, children of God, or separated ones (saints). It just makes us saints who sometimes sin and need forgiveness and repentance.
Some argue that once you are a believer, you are never a “sinner” (one who sins) and even if you do, forgiveness provided by the Cross was for past, present, and future sins all rolled together. If that were totally the case, we would never need to seek forgiveness for misdeeds—no need for 1 John 1:9. Yikes! That’s the extreme of the hypergrace movement. Others argue that we are only sinners saved by grace—lowly worms. If that were totally true, salvation is done deal for a very select few; your free will has nothing to do with it; and your being a sinner seems to be a permanent condition without hope. Double yikes! I really have a hard time with that. God does not want any to perish and He offers the gift of reconciliation to all of humanity and we have been give free will to choose Him. (Okay, so I’m not a Calvinist, but don’t let that stand between us.) It seems to be a case of explaining exactly what we mean—theology does matter.
Saint and sinner are obviously not either/or, and maybe not even both/and. Both words need contextual explanation. The revelation through His Word and supernatural encounters help us overcome temptations and move towards transformation. Forgiveness is available from a loving God when we blow it and run to Him for restoration. Grace and mercy are the twins we rely upon to help us find our way home. “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16).
We grow in grace and truth as we travel this earthly journey leaning on God’s Word and the Holy Spirit for guidance. We simply do not have it all until we see Him face to face in glory, but must not stop moving forward with Him when we think things are not working as well as we would like. Seek and receive forgiveness (1 John 1:9) when actions don’t look like separated ones—saints. Dust off the mess and keep going. Press on, saints. Come home, sinners. It may sounds like lyrics to a Broadway musical, but seriously, don’t let failures keep you from your purpose and destiny. “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).