So how does a person become a saint?  In the Catholic Church, it is mother church who makes you a saint based upon the life they believe you lived and based upon whether or not miracles occur when people pray to you after you are dead, so don't plan on becoming a Catholic saint in this lifetime.

Now if we really care about the truth, we will find in the Holy Bible, that REAL saints - as God defines the term - are made by God and God alone and they are made while the person is still living. The Bible refers to all born-again believers as saints as we see below. Paul and the other apostles often referred to the LIVING, not the DEAD when using the word saint because according to God, anyone He saves, anyone whom He makes into a new creature in Christ, is a saint.  And when a believer dies, they are still a saint and they don't have to wait for the Pope to make up his mind about it. When we look at the following scriptures it is very clear that saints are just ordinary Christians...

Some saints needed to be ministered to by Paul and others:

Romans 15:25 But now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints.

2 Corinthians 8:4 Praying us with much intreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.

Hebrews 6:10 For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.

Some saints needed financial assistance and other kinds of assistance:

Romans 15:26 For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem.

2 Corinthians 9:12 For the administration of this service not only supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God;

Saints were people who you could greet in person and they could greet you in person:

Romans 16:15 Salute Philologus, and Julia, Nereus, and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints which are with them.

2 Corinthians 13:13 All the saints salute you.

Philippians 4:22 All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesar’s household.

Saints could settle disputes between believers:

1 Corinthians 6:1 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?

Saints were alive and living in specific places:

Acts 9:13 Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem

Acts 9:32 And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters, he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda.

2 Corinthians 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia

Ephesians 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:

Philippians 1:1 Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:

Colossians 1:2 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Greek word for saint is "hagios" and we see that it means holy:

from hagos (an awful thing) [cf 53, 2282]; TDNT-1:88,14; adj
AV-holy 161, saints 61, Holy One 4, misc 3; 229 
1) most holy thing, a saint 
For Synonyms see entry 5878 

Is an ordinary Christian holy?

For lost sinners to become holy they need to become saved, regenerated by the Holy Spirit...

Ephesians 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

Notice in verse 6 above, that Christ makes people accepted/acceptable. He does this one way and one way only, by the blood of His atonement on behalf of His elect children...

Hebrews 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

Romans 5:11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

As Paul mentioned in Romans 5:11 above, believers received salvation (atonement) while yet alive. They did not need to go through Purgatory first. They knew they were saved and it was not presumptuous of them to think so since they could tell that God had converted them into new creatures in Christ... especially Paul who no longer went about persecuting Christians but rather preaching Christ.

Sinners, all sinners, need the righteousness of Christ to be imputed to them (applied to their account, at Christ's expense) since their own righteousness is of no saving value, it is actually sinful, because it is self-righteousness...

Isaiah 64:6  But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

So anyone who subscribes to the idea that they can achieve sainthood somehow by what they do or how they live is greatly mistaken.  They need to take heed to what the Apostle Paul said here:

1 Timothy 1:15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

Philippians 3:9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

2 Corinthians 10:17 But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

May the Good Lord bless with the salvation that turns hell-deserving sinners into holy saints who are acceptable to God, not by what they have done but by what Christ has done FOR THEM and by what Christ does IN THEM when He converts them.

"And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."
[Matthew 18:3]

Ray Kane
http://comingintheclouds.org