There are moments after the words leave our mouth, after the screen goes dark, after the door closes, when we feel it.
When the house is quiet and the memory is loud.
The temper we thought was buried rises again.
The craving we thought was crucified whispers.
The thought pattern we thought was gone knocks at the door.
And the shame feels sharper than it used to.
We love Jesus. We belong to Him. We have pledged our allegiance to Him as King. And yet here we are again, wrestling something that once defined us.
And in that quiet place, the fear forms:
Maybe I am still that person.
Paul once wrote to a church and listed sins that make us shift in our seats. Sexual immorality. Idolatry. Adultery. Theft. Drunkenness. Reviling. Swindling.
And then he said something that might be one of the most beautiful phrases in the New Testament:
"And such were some of you." (1 Corinthians 6:11 ESV).
Were.
Not such are some of you when you stumble.
Not such will always define you.
Were.
That word is a gift.
Before Jesus was our King, sin did not feel like war. It may have brought consequences. It may have brought embarrassment. But at the level of allegiance, there was no internal revolt. We were, as Jesus called him, under "the ruler of this world." (John 14:30 ESV). We were following the course of this world under another authority.
Sin was not foreign. It was familiar. It was the atmosphere we breathed.
But then something happened.
"He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son." (Colossians 1:13 ESV).
Delivered.
Transferred.
That is not self improvement. That is relocation.
When the New Testament speaks of faith, the word behind it is pistis, meaning loyal trust and allegiance. And when it speaks of grace, the word is charis, favor freely given from a greater to a lesser. When we gave Jesus our pistis, our allegiance as King, we received His charis, His unearned favor.
And with that transfer came privileges.
One of the greatest privileges of citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven is this:
Our former identity no longer has governing authority.
"And such were some of you."
Not because we cleaned ourselves up.
"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).
You were washed.
He did this.
Now here is what we must see clearly.
Before Jesus was King, sin was not an internal war. It was the atmosphere we breathed. We were under its dominion.
But after our transfer, something changed.
Now the same temptation that once felt natural feels like conflict.
Now the same behavior that once fit feels like betrayal.
Now when we stumble, we grieve.
Why?
Because allegiance has shifted.
"For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh." (Galatians 5:17 ESV).
That conflict is not proof that nothing happened.
It is evidence that rule has changed.
You do not fight what still owns you.
If sin still held dominion over us, there would be no war inside. There would be surrender.
But Scripture says, "For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace." (Romans 6:14 ESV).
Dominion has changed.
That is why the battle exists.
The struggle is not proof we are going backward.
It is evidence that we belong to a different King.
We must also guard against misunderstanding grace.
"What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!" (Romans 6:1–2 ESV).
Grace is not permission.
Grace is transfer.
Charis does not eliminate pistis. It creates it. We do not fight sin to earn grace. We fight because we are loyal to the King who gave it.
We only go back in the truest sense if our allegiance changes.
But stumbling in battle is not desertion.
"If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." (1 John 2:1 ESV).
We do not revert to who we were when we fall. We run to our Advocate. We confess. And as John promises:
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9 ESV).
Charis still flows.
Paul himself could have said, and such was I.
"Though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy." (1 Timothy 1:13 ESV).
Formerly.
Mercy.
If the gospel could turn a blasphemer into an apostle, then it can certainly declare over us:
Such were some of you.
Were.
You are not the old creature fighting to become new.
You are the new creature fighting what no longer owns you.
That is not denial of the past.
It is the privilege of citizenship under a King like no other.
As you sit with this teaching today, take a moment to reflect on where your past still speaks louder than your King. Where do old memories try to define you, even though your citizenship has changed? And where might Jesus be inviting you to see the battle not as proof you are going backward, but as evidence that you belong to Him? If you’re willing, share your reflections or questions in the comments so we can learn and walk this journey together.