How often have you heard someone say, "I'm just a sinner saved by grace"? It's a very common expression, but is that how we should be identifying ourselves?
I think I can hear somebody out there saying, "Paul spent most of Romans 7 talking about how he did what he didn't want to, and didn't do what he actually wanted to." Let's look at that.
In Romans 7:15-24, I counted his use of "I, me. and my" and came up with a total of 34 times. He seems to be looking to his own will-power and self discipline to obey what he knows he should do, and what he even wants to do. When he finally gets to the end of the chapter, he has the answer for this. He says, "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God - through Jesus Christ our Lord!..." And he carries on with "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit" (8:1). When his focus changed from his own self effort to what Jesus had done and was still doing for him and in him, he found victory.
Does God call us sinners? Ephesians 2:1-3 tells what we used to be. It refers to our sinful selves as being in the past. "And you He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, just as the others." Colossians 1:13, 14 says "He has delivered us from the power of darkness and has conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins."
Actually, God says He "was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them" (2 Corinthians 5:19). He is perfect love, and God's perfect kind of love "keeps no record of wrong" (1 Corinthians 13:5b NIV). Psalm 103:12 says, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us."
If God isn't keeping records of our sins, do you think He wants us to? Romans 6 says no. "For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin...For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all, that the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord" verses 5-7, 10-11).
I know we can't say we never sin, but that does not define our identity. If I work as a nurse 8 or 12 hours a day, then I have no trouble identifying myself as a nurse. If I was dishes for 10 minutes a couple of times in a day, I am not likely to identify myself as a dishwasher. Similarly, if I sin sometimes, that doesn't mean I should identify myself as a sinner.
How does God identify me? Just a few examples are: holy, blameless, without reproach, righteous, justified, cleansed. Jude 24 tells us that He is "able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy."
If we keep that view in mind, we are much more likely to live according to the standards of the Bible than if we constantly see ourselves as falling short, failing, "wretched" sinners. So, call yourself what God calls you, and watch Him live through you. Don't call yourself a sinner, but do call yourself saved by grace.
(Most references are from the NKJV, and I obviously added italics at will.)
