A Different Kind Of Trinity

This is a fun one. Last week I get an email from my friend John Jones. In it, John says that he has a “quick question” about a biblical term. He wanted to know, “What or whom is a "saint"?”

I responded with, “It’s a great question, with a lot to the answer”.

By the way, John Jones and his Dad Earl own and operate a music recording studio, a sound stage with television production capabilities, as well as produce local and nationally broadcast country music programs. Both are also very fine Christian men.

Now back to the question of “What is a saint?”.

First off, it is interesting to note (At least for me anyways) that the word “saint” in the singular, only appears three times in all of the Bible. The plural form of, “saints” is used 95 times in both the Old and New Testaments. So don’t think of saint as a “person”, but rather think in terms of a “people”.

But hold onto your communion wafer, because the plot is about to thicken.

The Greek word for saint(s) is “hagios”. But, almost without fail, in the New Testament hagios is also transliterated as being the word “Holy”. So, in short, the meaning of saint and holy are the same.

Are you still holding onto your communion wafer? Good, now go get your communion grape juice too ‘cause the plot is about to get a whole lot thicker.

Hagios means separated and devoted to God. If that sounds strangely like the definition for sanctify, it’s because it is. The Greek word for sanctify is “hagiazō” which has “hagios” (saint & holy) as its root word.

Let’s stop here for a little housekeeping. Strong’s Exhaustive Bible Concordance is a very useful tool for Bible study and research. I used it in writing this message. In Strong’s you can find definitions and the etymology for all the Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic words used in the Bible. An unique feature of Strong’s is that it assigns a specific number to each and every word, including their derivatives.

For example, the specific number assigned by Strong’s for the Greek word for saint is 40. The number assigned for the Greek word for Holy is also 40, since they are both transliterated from the same word, “hagios”. Finally, the Greek word for sanctify (hagiazo) is number 37. So you can see by the assigned numbers for the words in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance that they are either the same, or pretty close to it.

Although saint, holy, and sanctify are closely related, each has a specific meaning depending on whether it’s used as a noun, verb or adjective and in what context it is being used.

The word holy is almost exclusively used in association with the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit in the four gospels, the Book of Romans and Acts. It is in Paul’s other books (as well as Peter’s) that we see holy used in a different context.

Vine's Expository Dictionary highlights a very important point that must be understood about the word saint(s).

“This sainthood is not an attainment; it is a state into which God in grace calls men; yet believers are called to sanctify themselves”.

Really, to get to the heart of the original question John asked me relates to this. Saints are those called by God. It is God’s chosen, His elect.

Finally, the word sanctify. This is to be hallowed, made holy and set apart from the common or profane. This is the elect, God’s saints.

Isn’t it wonderful how all three words, saint, holy, and sanctify intermingle and work together in separating out and hallowing God’s children?

Bill Hitchcock