MercyMe – Greater

MercyMe is an American Contemporary Christian band.  Beginning in 1994, they released an impressive 18 albums, including:

• Pleased to Meet You (1995)
• Traces of Rain (1997)
• Traces of Rain Volume II (1998)
• The Need (1999)
• The Worship Project (1999)
• Look (2000)
• Almost There (2001)
• Spoken For (2002)
• Undone (2004)
• The Christmas Sessions (2005)
• Coming Up to Breathe (2006)
• All That Is Within Me (2007)
• The Generous Mr. Lovewell (2010)
• The Hurt & the Healer (2012)
• Welcome to the New (2014)
• MercyMe, It’s Christmas! (2015)
• Lifer (2017)
• Inhale (Exhale) (2021)

They received 12 awards for their work, including 1 Billboard, 8 Doves, 1 ASCAP, and 2 American Music.  They were also mentioned 10 times on Billboard’s magazine Decade (2000–2009).

Also, check out my reviews of Word of God Speak, Flawless, Happy Dance, I Can Only Imagine, and Even If.

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Mercyme-greater-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?

Speaking for God is a very dangerous prospect which artists ought to handle with care. Old Testament prophets were killed for falsely speaking on God’s behalf.  Having said that, Verse 1 and 2 comes to us from God’s perspective and both are Biblical, where God calls us out of our burdens and mortification and into a personal relationship with Himself as His children, where we’re declared set apart, in right standing with Him, and liberated.

This song also speaks of spiritual warfare overcome by the cross, which grants us undeserved favor and salvation.  It also states that God is greater.

My only criticism is the opening line of Bridge.  It’s a prophetic statement of defeat, as if we have no choice over our actions.  Yes, it might be true that our future contains pockets of defeat against our war against sin.  While stating this adds fuel to a victim mindset, preventing some from moving forward, MercyMe puts a positive spin on it by stating grace covers it, perhaps pushing these people to change.

Score: 9/10

2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?

Aside from the aforementioned issue with Bridge, line 1, this song is Scriptural.

[Verse 1]

Lines 1-6: Christ calls us to give Him our worries and shame so that He can give us rest (Matthew 11:28-30).  Sinner is no longer our identity.  We are now adopted children of the Most High (John 1:12-13, John 14:18, Romans 8:14-17, Romans 8:23, Romans 9:1-8, Galatians 3:26, Galatians 4:5-7, Ephesians 1:3-14, Ephesians 2:11-22, Hebrews 9:15, and 1 John 3:1-3).

[Pre-Chorus 1]

Lines 1 and 2: MercyMe experiences spiritual warfare (Matthew 4:1-11, Romans 7:14-25, Ephesians 6:12-17, and 2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

Line 3: Not that being incorrect is good, but that MercyMe can embrace the wrestling for what it is, because…

[Chorus]

Lines 1 and 2: …despite others’ technically correct statements that MercyMe doesn’t deserve God’s grace, He calls them redeemed (John 3:16, Romans 5:6-8, 1 Corinthians 6:20, Hebrews 5:9, Hebrews 9:28, 1 Peter 1:18-19, 1 John 1:9, and 1 John 2:2).

Lines 3 and 4: Quotes from the latter portion of 1 John 4:4.

Lines 5 and 6: Repeats the second half of line 4.

Lines 7 and 8: Repeats lines 3 and 4.

[Verse 2]

Lines 1-4: See commentary on Verse 1, lines 1-4.

Line 5: Borrows from Romans 8:1.

Line 6: List three truths about us, God’s children, that we are 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), righteous (Job 29:14, Psalm 132:9, Isaiah 61:10, and Revelation 19:7-8), and redeemed (see Chorus, lines 1 and 2).

[Pre-Chorus 2]

Lines 1-3: See Pre-Chorus 1.

[Bridge]

Line 1: How does he know that? 1 John 2:1-2 tells us if we sin, Jesus is our Advocate, not when. It would be better worded as “If there are days I lose the battle”, denoting the possibility of sin but not guaranteed.

Lines 2 and 3: Not in the sense that error has no consequences, but that ultimately mercy triumphs over judgment (James 2:13).

Line 4: God is greater.  Period (Deuteronomy 10:17, Psalm 8:3-4, Psalm 147:5, Job 26:14, Isaiah 40:28, and Isaiah 55:8-9).

Line 5: Repeats line 4.

Line 6: That is, freedom from sin’s shackles in Christ (Psalm 119:45, Isaiah 58:6, Isaiah 61:1, John 3:16-21, John 8:31-36, John 10:10, Acts 13:38-39, Romans 6:1-23, Romans 8:1-4, Romans 8:20-21, 1 Corinthians 6:12, 1 Corinthians 7:21-23, 2 Corinthians 3:17, Galatians 2:4, Galatians 3:13, Galatians 3:22, Galatians 5:1, Galatians 5:13, Colossians 1:21-23, Hebrews 2:14-15, and 1 Peter 2:16).

Line 7: That is, a child of God (see Verse 1, line 5).

Line 8: These wonderful acts of God causes MercyMe to return God’s love, implying surrender (Isaiah 64:8, Matthew 10:38, Matthew 11:28-30, Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34-38, Mark 10:28, Luke 9:23, Luke 14:27, John 15:1-11, Romans 6:13, Romans 12:1-2, Galatians 2:20, Philippians 2:5-8, Hebrews 11:6, James 4:7-10, and 1 Peter 5:6).

Lines 9 and 10: Repeats line 4.

Score: 9/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

This song relies mostly on everyday language to communicate with unbelievers. They should conclude that this song is about warring against two ideas, that voices tell them to do wrong while God’s voice calls them to Himself. Specifically, the Christian God because it talks about the cross winning the war.

I mentioned earlier that some people may be dissuaded from change by embracing a defeatist’s attitude. This runs especially true for unbelievers.

Score: 8/10

4. What does this song glorify?

While it glorifies God that we’re transformed by the God who is greater, the aforementioned issue regarding losing the battle slightly veils it.

Score: 9/10

Closing Comments

MercyMe’s Greater is a good song with a minor infraction.  While the world’s voices tell us we’re unworthy and a mistake, God’s calls us to grace through the cross.  While this brings glory to God, the implications of claiming future battle losses can lead to an unfortunate defeatist’s attitude towards change.  Still, unbelievers should walk away thinking that this song attempts to draw them to Christianity, where God is greater than their current lifestyle.

This song reads more like an evangelistic tool than a worship song.  Therefore, I find it difficult to recommend for corporate worship.

Final Score: 9/10

Artist Info

Track: Greater (listen to the song)

Artist: MercyMe

Album: Welcome to the New

Genre: Country

Release Year: 2014

Duration: 4:08

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