"the tax collector, ..., would not lift up his eyes to heaven,...saying ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ this man went to his house justtified."

"Every day I find it most healthy to my own soul to try to walk as a saint, but in order to do so, I must continually come to Christ as a sinner. I would seek to be perfect, I would strain after every virtue and forsake every false way, but still, as to my standing before God, I find it happiest to sit where I sat when I first looked to Jesus, on the rock of His works, having nothing to do with my own righteousness, but only with His. Depend on it: the happiest way of living is to live as a poor sinner and as nothing at all, having Jesus Christ as all in all. You may have all your growths in sanctification, all your progress in graces, all the development of your virtues that you will; but still I do earnestly pray you never to put any of these where Christ should be. If you have begun in Christ, then finish in Christ. If you have begun in the flesh and then go on in the flesh, we know what the sure result will be. But if you have begun with Jesus Christ as your Alpha, let Him be your Omega. I pray you never think you are rising when you get above this, for it is not rising, but slipping downwards to your ruin." -Charles Haddon Spurgeon

There is this debate within the Church which goes like this: One says, "I am a sinner saved by grace, until I die." The other says, "I am no longer a sinner, but righteous, and a saint."
Actually both of these claims are truth of God's Word. I lean toward calling myself a sinner justified by Christ alone. And yet there are times when I need to let others know I am a saint as much as Peter and Paul are saints. Not that I have had God's grace as effective as the Apostle's, but the truth that i am a saint of God is crystal clear in Scripture, and we can take great comfort in knowing nothing can take away our being a saint of the Lord. We are eternally set apart by Christ Jesus, and His Father, for the glory of His grace, and because He loved us with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3).

I also agree with Luther who taught us from the Scripture that we are: Simul Justus Et Peccator, which means: "Righteous and at the same time a sinner."

So I am encouraged by Pastor Spurgeon's teaching here. And exhorted as well. For there are times when our flesh makes us think we are spiritually above others with a false humility.

As Spurgeon says: "..the happiest way of living is to live as a poor sinner and as nothing at all, having Jesus Christ as all in all." And I would add-- well knowing we are a saint clothed in the grace and mercy of our Savior from head to toe.