You don't need to be dead to be a saint

All too often, the world has the wrong idea of sainthood. Number one, they think you have to live some sort of supernatural, miracle infused life that only one in a hundred million are righteous enough to live, and secondly they think you have to be dead before this title can be conferred on you. But Paul, writing to the most carnal church found in the New Testament , starts off in his letter to the Corinthians reminding them that they were already saints, or literally, true believers. Sainthood doesn’t happen after living some kind of super pious life and performing more good works than everyone else. Sainthood is a gift, conferred at one specific moment in time, the point at which you received grace leading to salvation.
As Paul says in 1 Cor. 1:6, “even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you”. Testimony refers to the message of the gospel. When was the gospel received or established in you? If you are born again, it’s when you accepted Jesus as your Savior. It’s when you were transferred from the dominion of darkness to the Kingdom of Light. It’s when you were purchased out of slavery and adopted into the family of God. At that moment in time, you were made a saint. “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.” Titus 3:5. “We’ve been saved by grace, through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is a gift of God, lest any man should boast”. Eph. 2:8.
Grace is free. Grace is undeserved. Grace transforms a sinner into a saint, not by virtue of their works, but positionally. You have been made holy by the blood of Christ which paid for all your sins in full for all time. As Paul says in verse 8 of 1 Cor., “Christ shall also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (at the judgment).
Wow, what a priceless gift salvation is. We could never buy it ourselves. It had to be given because it was completely beyond our ability to pay for it. It’s almost incomprehensible that I’ve been made righteous enough, by grace, to stand blameless before the perfect, almighty God. Because of His great love for us, I choose to love Him and serve Him the rest of my days.