Mary is a tough subject for Protestants. Protestant Christians do not focus on Jesus’ mother much at all (unless it’s a Mother’s Day sermon). In part, this is an overreaction to the improper emphasis upon Mary among other religious traditions, but in other ways it is a travesty.
The term “saint” in the New Testament comes from the Greek word Hagios. Many times translations do not always represent the true power of words they are translating. In a real sense, because God is pure, that purity would make His priests also pure. Hagios in its true and proper meaning is “to dedicate, to consecrate;” more specifically to consecrate to God. In the New Testament this word also indicates a consecration to God which results in God’s righteousness being laid upon a person.
By calling someone a “saint” does not mean they are holier or more pure than another believer, it means that ALL of God’s people are saints because God Himself makes them so. Saint means purity by implication. Sometimes this word, when not related to people, is translated as sanctify: “To consecrate, dedicate, or set apart.”
Being a saint means we are confronted with the fact that holiness or sanctification is not some mystical, magical glow or power. It is simply a designation, a recognition of one’s position or relationship with respect to Jesus Christ. In Christianity it means we all have a restored relationship with God through Jesus; we are children and thus heirs, and we are citizens of God’s Kingdom.
