All Saints Day

The self-absorbed thinking conveyed in the line, "Well, me and Jesus got our own thing goin'," may have worked for Tom T. Hall's now passe American country song, but it is hardly the defining characteristic of true believers. Being willing to stand alone against error is one thing, but individualism in general is nowhere commended in Scripture. Such thinking flies smack in the face of God's emphasis on building local communities of believers who are universally united in Christ around the true gospel.

Blind spots, flaws and all, it is fortunate for us that God calls saints those who embrace the humble path of justification by grace through faith in Christ alone (Eph. 1:1, 15). Incredibly, He not only calls us saints and imputes the righteousness of Christ to us (2 Cor. 5:21), but He uses us in every generation to build His kingdom.

All Saints Day is officially commemorated on November 1st each year, serving as an annual reminder that every follower of Christ is a part of something very, very big and... ancient.

According to one source, the tradition dates back to "about A.D. 610, when the Pantheon, turned into a Christian Church, was dedicated to to all saints. Its great idea is the Unity of Christians of all ages, countries, and races in Christ, and the perfection of that unity in heaven" (1662 Book of Common Prayer).

All Saints Day also reminds us to be thankful to God for His grace. It is only by His grace that anyone is able to get the gospel right. We pray to God, the giver of grace.  We do not pray to the saints (Matt. 6:6), through the saints (1 Tim. 2:5) or for saints who have gone to glory (seeing that they're already in heaven and don't need our prayers). Rather, we remember the saints and to allow the memory of their faith spur us on to deeper worship and greater service to the Lord. Hebrews 11 gives us examples of the great cloud of witnesses who are called so, not because they are watching us, but because they testify of God's grace to them. The testimony of past saints resounds to us: "God is faithful." "The Lord is good, trust always in Him." "God's grace was sufficient for me and it will be for you too." 

As the classic hymn "For All the Saints" was played during our local church's worship service this weekend, I reflected over the landscape of the past 2000 years of Christian history and pictured millions now enjoying their rest in the presence of the Lord as well as the thousands of believers here on earth—the final two stanzas conveying the unified thought of all of us saints, both in heaven and on earth: