Photo by Daniele Levis Pelusi
MercyMe is well-known as the artist behind I Can Only Imagine, originally intended to be Amy Grant’s comeback song. MercyMe released a jaw-dropping 18 albums, including The Worship Project (1999), All That Is Within Me (2007), and LIFER (2017). They received 12 awards for their work, including 1 Billboard, 8 Dove, 1 ASCAP, and 2 American Music. They were also mentioned 10 times on Billboard’s magazine Decade (2000–2009).
Check out my reviews of Happy Dance, I Can Only Imagine, and Even If.
Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Mercyme-flawless-lyrics.
Note to new users: This is a different kind of review site! Read About the Berean Test and Evaluation Criteria prior to reading this review.
1. What message does the song communicate?
MercyMe gives assurance to those who struggle with doing the right thing. This is not who we are. Our value comes from God, who rescues us and whose unconditional love compels Him to sanctify us through sufficient sacrifice. It is not in the things we do. Sometimes, we struggle to accept this truth.
Score: 10/10
2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?
The entire song is Biblical.
[Verse 1]
Lines 1-4: While we often choose good and evil (Romans 7:14-25), we also sometimes believe the lie that this struggle is our identity. It’s not.
Lines 5-7: MercyMe’s old self thought that there was value in their works. However, Scripture teaches that it cannot save us. The sum of their works are filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). They are dead in their sins (Proverbs 21:16, Luke 15:11-24, Romans 6:23, Ephesians 2:1-2, Colossians 2:13, and 1 Timothy 5:6). Their works cannot save them (Galatians 2:21).
[Pre-Chorus]
Lines 1-3: When we think it’s too late for us, God’s grace swoops in to save us, if we would believe it (Genesis 15:6, Exodus 33:19, Psalm 32:1-2, Romans 3:21-24, Romans 4:3-8, Romans 5:1-2, Romans 5:6-8, Romans 5:15-21, Romans 6:14, Romans 8:1-4, Romans 9:14-16, Romans 11:5-6, Galatians 2:21, Galatians 3:6, Galatians 5:4, Ephesians 1:7, Ephesians 2:4-9, 2 Thessalonians 2:16, Titus 2:11, 1 Timothy 1:15-16, and James 2:23).
[Chorus]
Lines 1-12: Regardless of what we’ve gone through, Christ’s sacrifice makes us holy in God’s eyes (John 17:19, Romans 8:1, 1 Corinthians 1:2, 1 Corinthians 1:30, 1 Corinthians 6:11, Philippians 3:9, Hebrews 9:12, Hebrews 10:10-14, and Hebrews 13:12).
Lines 13-17 (only appears at the end): We became sanctified the moment that we called upon the name of Jesus for salvation (Joel 2:32, Acts 2:21, and Romans 10:9-13).
Lines 18-23: Repeats lines 1-6.
[Verse 2]
Lines 1-4: While some will balk at the idea that God’s love is without condition, there is a difference between unconditional love and unconditional relationship. When MercyMe says that God’s love is “unconditional”, they are saying that God’s love for us is not conditioned upon us. Our behavior, whether good or evil, does not change God’s love for us. He died for us while we were sinners (Romans 5:6-8). Nothing will separate us from His love (Romans 8:38-39). He is faithful even when we are faithless (2 Timothy 2:13). Of course, He also allows us to experience eternal separation from Him if that’s what we want (Matthew 18:8, Matthew 25:41, Matthew 25:46, Mark 9:43, Jude 1:7, Revelation 14:11, and Revelation 20:10), but that is a separate issue.
God’s relationship with us is not unconditional. When we decide to follow Jesus, He expects us to become holy (Leviticus 11:44-45, Leviticus 19:2, Leviticus 20:7, Romans 6:1-14, Ephesians 4:1, Colossians 1:10-14, 1 Peter 1:13-16, and 1 Peter 2:16) and to love everything else less than Him (Luke 14:25-33).
Lines 5-7: See Chorus.
[Bridge]
Lines 1-3: In terms of sanctification, we can take solace in knowing that Christ’s sacrifice is once and for all (Hebrews 7:27, Hebrews 9:12, Hebrews 9:26-28, and Hebrews 10:10-14) and that there is no condemnation in Jesus (Romans 8:1).
Score: 10/10
3. How would an outsider interpret the song?
Those outside the camp of Christ should interpret this similarly to my opening paragraph in section 1. MercyMe’s language is common and easy to comprehend.
Score: 10/10
4. What does this song glorify?
It glorifies God as the One who makes us flawless.
Score: 10/10
Closing Comments
MercyMe’s Flawless is flawless. Iit accurately describes God’s unconditional love whose sacrifice is sufficient for salvation, compeling us to be different and bringing glory to God. Unbelievers will find it easy to understand.
This song is inspirational, but not appropriate for corporate worship.
Final Score: 10/10
Artist Info
Track: Flawless (listen to the song)
Artist: MercyMe
Album: Welcome to the New
Genre: Pop
Release Year: 2014
Duration: 4:15
Agree? Disagree? Don’t be shy or have a cow! Calmly and politely state your case in a comment, below.
Updates:
10/20/2022 – Upon examination, I changed my mind about my recommendation for corporate worship.
03/25/2021 – Updated per repetition announcement.
09/23/2020 – After prayerfully considering Neal Cruco’s comments, I decided to update my review. Since I have no other criticism to offer, this significantly increased its score, from 7/10 to 10/10.
Comments
greennpurple
Although I love this song and can’t stop singing it, I also have a problem with the message. What bothers me is that some believe that our flawless condition is the end-all. Being made flawless was on Christ’s part, but repentance is on our part. One can’t continue to live in sin and think they will be saved. We can forget this, overlook this, or not believe this, but this is what scripture says.
Vince Wright
greennpurple,
Thank you for your comments!
In a sense, it is the end-all in the sense that holiness (or made flawless) will be the end result post-death. It’s an aim that we must all strive for in our obedience to Christ. However, I agree: we mustn’t live in sin by hanging onto grace (Romans 6:1-2).
-Vince Wright
Lorri Curto
I was very surprised by your rating of Flawless as it is a song I have struggled with, not so much for what the song says as for what it leaves out. There are few songs as catchy as Flawless but nowhere in the song does it acknowledge the rebellious source of our sins. Everything mentioned, particularly in the chorus, is passive. It refers to bumps, bruises, hurt, pain and wound all of which are passive things that happen to a person, there’s no recognition that many ills we suffer are ultimately self-inflicted and what we need is forgiveness for our SINS, our active rebelling against God and our unwillingness to recognize that our sins are not just things that happen to us but are instead results of our fallen state and refusal to submit to God. The only hint in the song that we aren’t merely passive victims is the phrase “take a filthy wretch like this and wrap him up in righteousness” and that is a phrase that Mercy Me should credit to John Newton! Overall I think you are being pretty generous with your rating and a 7 or 8 would have been more accurate.
Vince Wright
Lorri,
Thank you for your comments!
Yes, it was precisely the “take a filthy wretch like this” part that led me to conclude acknowledgment of precisely the type of people that MercyMe was: base, despicable, and vile. In other words, they were wicked people! Yes, Merriam-webster has two definitions for Wretch, but the “filthy” bit led me to conclude the second one. “Wretch” is so controversial in some circles that some modern worshippers replaced it in Newton’s song Amazing Grace to “saved someone like me”! I believe “filthy wretch” is a suitable alternative to “sinner”, explaining the cause of many bumps, bruises, scars, and deep pain that we have.
-Vince Wright
Neal Cruco
Interesting. I have never interpreted “Thinking there’s worth in what you do” as saying that there is no point in doing good works. After all, saving faith always produces good works as evidence of itself. In the context of Verse 1 and Pre-Chorus, I interpret that line as MercyMe saying that our identity shouldn’t be in our good works, because they are worthless to save us. All of our righteousness is like filthy rags in God’s sight. Essentially, the things that we do cannot contribute to making us flawless before God. Only His amazing grace can.
Vince Wright
Neal,
Thank you for your comments!
After prayerfully reading your comments and re-reading the lyrics, I must agree with you (again). Your interpretation makes more sense than mine in the context of Verse 1 vs. Verse 2, as well as the entire song.
I updated my review.
-Vince Wright