The Story Behind “The Devil Was an Outlaw, Jesus Was a Saint”

Sometimes a song starts with a melody. Other times it starts with a single line that won’t leave you alone.

For me, it was this one:

“The devil was an outlaw, Jesus was a saint.”

At first glance, it sounds like a simple comparison. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was really about choices.

The devil promises the easy road. Fast money. Fast living. No rules. It’s a life that’s been romanticized in songs, movies, and stories for generations. The outlaw life has always carried a certain mystique. But every shortcut comes with a price.

Jesus walked a very different road. He wasn’t chasing power or wealth. He stood for mercy, forgiveness, and truth, even when it cost Him everything. He lived as the example of what we should strive to be, even though none of us gets it right all the time.

This song isn’t about pretending we’re saints. Most of us have made mistakes. We’ve all wandered down roads we wish we hadn’t. We’ve all fought battles no one else could see.

The message is simple: every day we’re choosing which voice to listen to.

As a songwriter, I’ve always been drawn to characters with rough edges—the drifters, the outlaws, the broken souls looking for redemption. Country music has always told those stories. But underneath every good outlaw song is the hope that there’s still a way back home.

That’s what this song is really about.

No matter how far you’ve wandered, grace is always waiting.

Maybe that’s why this song means so much to me. It reminds me that while the world may celebrate rebels, kindness, forgiveness, and faith still win in the end.

If this song makes you stop and think for a few minutes, then it did exactly what I hoped it would do.