But Ye

Devotional

Day 1: From Dark Rooms to Sunlit Freedom

The Christian life begins with a radical shift—like stepping from a sealed, lightless chamber into blinding daylight. Before Christ, every soul sits shackled in spiritual blindness, condemned by sin’s weight. Salvation flings open the doors, flooding life with warmth and clarity. This new identity as God’s people demands walking in the light, no longer groping in old patterns of shame. To live otherwise would be like retreating into the suffocating dark after tasting liberation. [18:53]

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
(1 Peter 2:9, ESV)

Reflection: What area of your life still feels like a “dark room” you’ve been hesitant to fully surrender to Christ’s light? How might embracing your identity as “called out” change your next step?

Day 2: Washed Clean, No Stain Remains

Sin leaves a residue—guilt, shame, the grit of rebellion. But salvation scrubs the soul spotless. Like a garment plunged into purifying blood, every mark of the old life is erased. This washing isn’t self-improvement; it’s divine surgery, removing what human effort could never cleanse. To cling to old stains now would deny the completeness of Christ’s work. The washed life radiates the freedom of unburdened purity. [35:42]

“…To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood…”
(Revelation 1:5, ESV)

Reflection: What “stain” from your past do you struggle to believe Christ’s blood has fully cleansed? How might living as “washed” reshape your choices today?

Day 3: Set Apart for a Narrower Path

Sanctification is a severing—a sharp knife cutting ties to old allegiances. Once slaves to sin’s cravings, believers now wear the mark of divine ownership. Every appetite, relationship, and ambition bends toward a new Master. This separation isn’t isolation but purposeful consecration. Like a tool reserved for sacred use, the sanctified life exists solely for God’s hands. [37:08]

“And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
(1 Corinthians 6:11, ESV)

Reflection: Where do you feel tension between “fitting in” with old patterns and living “set apart”? What one adjustment would deepen your sense of being God’s sacred instrument?

Day 4: Courtroom Mercy and the Innocent Verdict

Justification is a legal shockwave—the guilty declared righteous, the condemned set free. No probation, no parole. Christ’s sacrifice satisfies justice completely, leaving believers standing as if sin never marked them. To grovel in old shame now insults the Judge’s decree. The justified walk with heads lifted, not because of their record, but His. [38:12]

“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law… the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.”
(Romans 3:21-22, ESV)

Reflection: When do you still act like a “defendant” rather than a pardoned heir? How might living from justification—not for it—transform a relationship this week?

Day 5: Walking Roads the Unrighteous Can’t Tread

Salvation redirects footsteps. Where the world’s path spirals into self-destruction, the believer’s way ascends toward holiness. Each choice—to love, forgive, or abstain—becomes a mile marker of transformation. These roads aren’t easy, but they’re lit by the certainty of arrival. Straying onto old trails only proves the need for course correction, not lost identity. [33:45]

“Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.”
(1 Peter 2:12, ESV)

Reflection: What “road” have you been tempted to revisit that contradicts your new identity? How could your faithful walking today become a signpost for someone still lost?

Sermon Summary

Paul presses the words “but ye” because the Corinthians needed to remember that salvation had made a real change. Their trouble with taking brother against brother before unjust courts showed a heart still bent on coming out on top. Christian unity and the testimony of Christ mattered more than winning a civil dispute. The church had been called to get its eyes off self and keep its focus on the Lord.

Peter’s picture of darkness and marvelous light helps show the difference. Before faith in Christ, sinners were dead in trespasses and sins, condemned, ignorant of God’s salvation, and sitting in a dark room of sin and misery. God, by grace, brings the believer out into the light, into forgiveness, life, warmth, and comfort. That change is as drastic as walking from complete darkness into a sun-drenched parking lot.

Paul asks, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?” Righteousness does not come by doing enough good works to earn God’s favor. The righteousness of God comes by faith in Jesus Christ. The unrighteous are those who have not been made right with God through that faith, and their earthly lives commonly follow the well-worn paths of sin.

Paul’s list names sins of self-gratification: fornication, idolatry, adultery, unnatural lust, theft, covetousness, drunkenness, reviling, and extortion. These are not presented as works a sinner must avoid in order to become righteous. Good works stem from salvation; they are not the seeds that develop salvation. Neither does Paul say that a Christian who falls into such sin has lost heaven. He shows that these are not the paths the saved are meant to travel.

Paul then brings the whole matter home with “such were some of you.” Some Corinthians had truly lived in these sins, but Christ had made them different. They were washed, with sin’s pollution removed through Christ’s blood. They were sanctified, set apart from sin and unto God, bought with a price and belonging to Him. They were justified, made innocent because Christ’s payment had been applied to their account.

The holy life, then, is the life that fits those who are saved. The righteous are right with God and are to be rightdoers. Their feet may need to be taken off sinful paths, but their identity is no longer found there. Heaven is their eternal home, and their present life ought to show who they are in Christ.

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Key Takeaways

1. Salvation brings a great change The change from death to life is not a small adjustment in behavior. God brings sinners out of spiritual darkness into His marvelous light, giving them a new standing and a new direction. Christian conduct matters because regeneration is real. [20:29]
2. Righteousness comes through faith alone The righteousness of God is His way of making guilty sinners right with Himself. Human effort cannot earn that standing, because salvation is by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus. Good works grow out of salvation, but they never purchase it. [31:12]
3. Sinful paths do not fit saints The works of the flesh remain the well-worn paths of the unrighteous. A believer may step onto those paths and must get off them, but such sin does not become the believer’s true identity. The life of fornication, idolatry, greed, drunkenness, and abuse is not the life God intends for His people. [33:12]
4. Christ has washed, sanctified, justified sinners Christ removes sin’s pollution, sets His people apart for God, and declares them innocent through His finished payment. These three words show more than a cleaned-up past: they declare a new possession, a new position, and a secure standing before God. The believer belongs to Christ and will never again be what he once was.

## [38:52]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[12:21] - The Unrighteous Shall Not Inherit
[13:07] - “But Ye” and Christian Identity
[13:48] - Brother Versus Brother in Court
[15:38] - From Spiritual Death to Life
[16:34] - Called Out of Darkness
[18:29] - Darkness and Marvelous Light
[21:13] - Righteousness Through Faith
[24:48] - Do Not Be Deceived
[27:43] - The Paths of Self-Gratification
[30:39] - Grace, Not Works, Saves
[32:08] - Sinful Paths Are Not Christian Paths
[34:14] - Such Were Some of You
[35:10] - Washed in Christ’s Blood
[36:41] - Sanctified and Set Apart
[37:55] - Justified and Made Innocent

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

1 Corinthians 6:9–11

Verse 9: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,” [12:16]

Verse 10: “nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” [12:33]

Verse 11: “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” [35:02]

1 Peter 2:9–12

Verse 9: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” [16:46]

Verse 10: “Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” [17:05]

Verse 11: “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.” [17:13]

Verse 12: “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” [17:20]

Romans 3:21–22

Verse 21: “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—” [21:41]

Verse 22: “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:” [21:47]

Observation questions

What contrast does Paul make in 1 Corinthians 6:9–11 between those who are unrighteous and the Corinthian believers?
In 1 Peter 2:9–10, what phrases describe the believers’ new identity, and what phrases describe their former condition? [17:32]
What kinds of sins are named in 1 Corinthians 6:9–10, and what common desire seems to tie many of them together? [27:46]
According to Romans 3:21–22, where does righteousness come from, and who receives it?

Interpretation questions

Paul says, “such were some of you,” rather than “such are some of you.” How does that wording show both the reality of a believer’s past and the reality of God’s power to change a person? [34:20]
What does it mean that righteousness is received through faith in Jesus Christ “apart from the law”? How does this keep a person from treating good works as the price of salvation? [30:57]
Paul warns believers not to be deceived about lives marked by sin. How can a believer take sin seriously without concluding that salvation is earned by avoiding certain sins or lost whenever a believer falls? [31:46]
Peter calls believers God’s own people and then urges them to live honorably before others. Why does a changed identity in Christ lead to a changed direction in daily life? [18:22]

Application questions

Is there an area where the desire to come out on top has become more important than peace, unity, or a good testimony for Christ? What would it look like to seek a godly resolution, even if it involves giving up something personally? [14:40]
God has called His people out of darkness into marvelous light. When considering life before Christ and life in Christ, what changes has God already made in your desires, hope, or understanding of salvation? [19:06]
Which old paths of self-gratification—such as greed, harsh speech, dishonesty, sexual sin, idolatry, or drunkenness—are most easily presented as normal or harmless in the world around us? Where might you need to be especially watchful? [30:12]
A believer’s feet may wander onto a sinful path, but that path is no longer his true home. Is there a sinful pattern, temptation, or compromise that you need to step away from and bring into the light with a trusted Christian? [33:21]
Being washed means that Christ has removed sin’s pollution; being sanctified means belonging to God; being justified means being declared innocent through Christ’s payment. Which of these truths most strengthens your heart right now, and why? [38:38]
Since believers belong to Christ and are not their own, what is one ordinary part of life—relationships, work, speech, entertainment, spending, or private habits—where you want your life to more clearly show that you belong to Him? [37:12]
Heaven is the believer’s eternal home, and the holy life fits those who have been saved. What is one practical step you can take this week to live as someone who is right with God and desires to be a rightdoer? [40:04]

Sermon Clips

41s

“It's a big difference from being condemned by sin to being saved from sin. It's as drastic as going from utter darkness to walking out into a sun drenched parking lot. God has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. You and I have been set free. We have been regenerated by the grace of God. We have been made alive spiritually and we're no longer in the dark room of sin and misery but we have entered the endless world of light and life.”

80s

“You think of these Corinthians before they said, well, I'm gonna make sure I come out on top. Paul said, listen, you've been born again. You've been regenerated. It's not time to take your case to the courts before an unjust judge and say, I'm going to make sure that I'm coming out victorious. I'm not going to be victimized. I'm going to win. Paul said, no. You've been born again. He said, you you may have to suffer loss for the sake of the advantage of Christian testimony. Now you're willing to be defrauded. Before, Paul said, you sought your pleasures to be fulfilled. Before you were saved, you were a servant of sin, yielding yourself to your desires, your whims, your fancies. You concerned yourself with self gratification, willingly polluting yourself with ungodly and perhaps unnatural lust. And Paul said that's not your way anymore. That's the ways of the unrighteous. But now you've been made right with God. You are washed, you are sanctified, you are justified. You shall inherit the kingdom of God. Heaven is your eternal home. Believe and be convinced that the holy life is the life for the saved.”

41s

“Do you remember when you got saved? Was it in Sunday school or a church service or maybe at home or wherever you were? When you believed on the Lord Jesus, you were at that moment justified, made innocent. His payment was applied to your account and having been satisfactorily play been paid, you were set free, made innocent. You and I are not who we used to be. We never will be. We belong to him. And knowing who we are, we are to be what God wants us to be.”

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