I played a lot of sports growing up. I played football for more than a decade, and wrestled for 6 years. One of the sayings that I heard quite often is, “Good is the enemy of great.”
This was usually said to our high school football team after practice. Our coach would tell us, “Guys, we had a good practice today, but it wasn’t enough. We need to be great out there. Good is enemy of great.” Clearly, having won a grand total of 5 games in 4 years, his speech didn’t really work that well! But there is a truth in that statement.
Good is the enemy of great, but it is also the enemy of perfection. You see, often times this is where we get into trouble as the church – we begin to look to the Old Testament, which the Bible says was good, and we attempt to bring it into the New Covenant of Grace, which is perfect.
Hebrews 8:6-7
But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.
So, we can see clearly that there was something wrong with that first covenant that God established with the Israelites. What was it?
I think we need to further understand what happened leading up to the law and the Mosaic Covenant before we answer that question.
You see, God had been working since the fall of man, trying to get man back into a right relationship with Him. The issue was, man had resisted the Grace of God continually, and man began to mistake God’s Grace for God’s approval. If you look through the Old Testament prior to the dispensation of the Law, man was not judged by what he did. Cain murdered Abel, and God promised that “whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” (Genesis 4:15) A few years later, after Lamech killed a man in self-defense, we find him saying, “If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.” (Genesis 4:24)
He spoke for God without hearing from Him, and nothing came of it. We find zero punishment for murder on Cain’s behalf, and we see no punishment for death or speaking for God on Lamech’s behalf.
We even find Abraham, whom the Bible lists as “The father of faith,” lying about his wife being his sister (Genesis 12:13) without any consequences. In fact, the Bible even said that he was counted as righteous because he believed in the Lord and what He said. (Genesis 15:6)
However, when we get to the book of Exodus, we find that something has changed. God deals with the Israelites in the same fashion until the 19th chapter of Exodus. In the first seven verses, God is talking about the Covenant He desires to establish with the Israelites, and then says if they keep the covenant, they will be a special people to Him. Notice, there is still no curse for breaking the Covenant.
However, when we jump to verse 8, we find that the people answered God and said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” When you study out the language there, you find that the tone and syntax boils down to them actually saying, “We are able to do whatever you tell us in our own strength.” In other words, they are no longer relying on God or trusting in Him. They are relying on their own ability.
The law then comes in. If you followed the law, blessings would come your way, but if you broke the law, the curse would come upon you.
Obviously, this wasn’t the way God desired it to be. In fact, you find time after time before the law that God would exercise Grace on behalf of His people. He only desired to bless them.
But once man got it in his head that he was capable of pleasing God in his own ability and his own strength, God had to put a stop to it. You see, the design of the law is to bring man to an end of himself. To make him realize that no matter what he does or has done, he cannot measure up to God’s standard of perfection.
In fact, you find that after the law came was when the punishments began for the Israelites murmuring and complaining.
You may be saying to yourself, “What on earth does this have to with the title of your post?” Don’t worry, I’m getting there.
Then, as we all know, Jesus came on the scene. He was and is the mediator between God and man. The only perfect sacrifice. His Blood has made us perfect and holy, and we find, like we read early, that this New Covenant, which He is the mediator of, is established upon better promises.
What are the better promises? I think it boils down to two passages. The first one is found in Hebrews 8:11, and it simply says this:
None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.
He has promised to no longer remember the bad things you’ve done! He will be merciful to you when you don’t deserve it! Isn’t that good news?
Now, the second passage is found in Galatians 3:12-14
13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written,“Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
So, the curse that was on the law has been removed! The curse should no longer be operating in the believer’s life.
How does this make “Good: The Enemy of Perfection”?
It’s quite simple really. Too many times we find that the church is trying to put themselves back under the Old Testament model.
People keep trying to bring the law back into play. They try to bring Old Testament practices into the New Testament church.
If you’ve ever been around Charismatic Christians, I’m sure you’ve seen some of this. People want to pray and worship until a Glory Cloud comes in and fills the room and the atmosphere. We cite passages from the Old Testament that talk about a cloud filling the room as the people praised God. But what does the New Testament have to say about this?
Well, 2 Corinthians 3:18 tells us that when we “behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, (we) are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” It also tells us that God has “shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6)
Read through the 3rd and 4th chapters, and you will see what I am talking about. In the New Covenant, the Glory isn’t found in a cloud, or in the tabernacle, it’s found in us and developed inside of us by looking at Jesus!
When we substitute the things from the Old Covenant in place of things in the New Covenant, we don’t just set ourselves back. In Galatians 2:21, Paul tells us,
I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.
And in Galatians 3:10 he says,
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse
Trying to live under the law and make yourself live right will only result in disaster, because you put yourself back in the same place Jesus came to redeem you from! Our only job is to rest in His grace, and trust in the finished work of Jesus.
We can’t play church as usual. The preaching of the law, with it’s focus on “do’s and don’ts” has harmed far too many believers. Churches have people believing that trusting Jesus isn’t enough, and some of them even believe that if they sin they might not make it to heaven!
The only purpose that serves is to trip up the believer. A focus on the law will only strengthen sin.(1 Corinthians 15:57) They only option for the believer is full abandonment of self: That is to trust God with everything you have. You can’t trust in your good works, or the fact that you have perfect church attendance, or in saying that you’ve never lied, or any number of things.
All you can do is trust in Jesus. His love, His salvation, His grace isn’t based on any of those things. It’s based on the fact that Love, Salvation, and Grace is WHO HE IS! When you attempt to substitute the good for the perfect, it makes the perfect less valuable in your eyes.
I want to challenge all of you to stop relying on what you have or haven’t done in your life to get things done. Stop relying on how good of a person you’ve been to determine whether you’ll make it into heaven, or whether you will walk in the blessings of God on this earth. Instead, rely on what Jesus did for you. It isn’t your job to measure up. In fact, you couldn’t if you tried. But Jesus measured up for you.
Let the Perfect One live through you today. He will do the measuring up. Don’t base how you feel about your salvation on your efforts. Your job is to trust that He is ready, willing, and able to measure up for you. And when you don’t feel like you measure up, remember a scripture we looked at earlier,
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.