Under the new covenant you are a saint who sometimes sins, not a sinner who sometimes does well. The Bible calls believers saints hundreds of times. Sin is now something you do on occasion, not the name that defines you.
The Grace Answer
Few phrases sound more humble and do more quiet damage than “I’m just a sinner saved by grace.” It feels modest. It is actually a step backward into an old identity that Christ already ended.
Look at how the New Testament addresses believers. Over and over it calls them saints, the holy ones, set apart in Christ. It never once calls a Christian a sinner as a standing title. That word is reserved for humanity apart from Christ, the very condition grace rescued you out of. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Notice the tense. Were. That was then.
Sin as an event, not an identity
None of this pretends you never sin. You do. But there is a world of difference between committing a sin and being a sinner at the core. You are a saint who sometimes sins, not a sinner who occasionally manages to do right. The nature of sin was removed when the old you was crucified with Christ, and a new nature was raised in its place.
Scripture even calls believers saints in the middle of correcting them. Paul addresses the Corinthians as saints in the same letter where he rebukes their behavior, precisely because their identity was not up for debate even when their conduct was. Why does the wording matter so much? Because you tend to live out of the name you answer to. Call yourself a sinner and every failure simply confirms the label, and you expect more of the same. Call yourself what God calls you, a saint, and failure becomes the exception that contradicts your identity rather than the rule that proves it.
This is not arrogance. It is not a claim that you are impressive. It is a claim that Christ is, and that His work actually changed what you are. The most honest thing you can say is not “I’m just a sinner.” It is “I was a sinner, and then Jesus made me a saint, and He does not do half a job.”