The song “Flawless” was written by a contemporary Christian band founded in Greenville, Texas in 1994. MercyMe first gained recognition with their song “I Can Only Imagine”. Since then, the group has released six studio albums (four of which have been certified gold), seven songs reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Christian Songs Chart, eight Dove awards, and numerous Grammy award nominations.
The band, being that it is a Christian band, takes much of their inspiration from the Bible, God and Jesus, and other biblical characters. The song “Flawless”, in this case, is inspired by Jesus Christ’s crucifixion.
On April 8th, 2014, MercyMe released their eighth studio album, Welcome to the New. With the release of this album also came the release of their song “Flawless”. The song begins with that there has to be more to life than what is occurring right now; there has to be a deeper meaning as to why we were put onto this planet. The band, through its lyrics, then takes the listener on a journey saying that he will introduce them to “amazing grace”, By this statement, he means the grace of God and all His glory.
The band then reveals that God sent us His only son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins. Through His death on the cross, Jesus Christ has made us flawless. Disregarding all of our bumps, bruises, and scars, the death of Christ has made us flawless.
What is the artist communicating and how?
The song “Flawless” was written to emphasize how each and everyone of us, created in the image and likeness of God, are flawless. In an interview with the lead singer of MercyMe, Bart Millard, talks about how in his own life he was curious as to whether or not there was more to the life he was living. Millard thought that there had to be more than just living by the rules, following your religion, and being good. He then continues to say that no matter what you are going through in your life or what you have already suffered and endured, the cross has made you flawless. They key point of this interview, in my opinion, was when Millard said our enemies will try to bring us down because they know that we are flawless. He goes on to say that they will try to convince us that we are anything but flawless.
Through this song, the artist is trying to display the themes of perfection and redemption. The theme of perfection can be seen throughout the entirety of the song; the entire song talks about regardless of all our scars, bumps, bruises, and everything else that we have gone through, we are still seen as perfect and flawless through the eyes of God. We, however, see ourselves as anything but. We, who were created in his image and likeness, cannot imagine ourselves as being as perfect as God is. However, if He says that we are perfect, we must be after all. The theme of redemption can be seen in the chorus of the song when the artist says “the cross has made you flawless”. Through these lines, the artists is trying to share how our sins were “erased” because of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. After his death, we are pure, in a sense. This song is written to show that though we are doubtful of our beauty and perfection, we are flawless.
Why do you find it beautiful?
I find this song to be extremely beautiful because of the emotions that I felt when I first heard this song. I was going through bit of a rough patch in my life and on this particular day, I was already upset and in a bad mood. I was driving home, really irritated with myself and the outcomes of certain situations at hand and was wondering if this was all life was really about, all these obstacles and struggles. However, upon hearing this song playing in my car, I felt my entire attitude shift into a more positive direction and outlook. I honestly felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of my shoulders and I just felt all in all more positive about certain situations at hand.
Though I consider myself not to have the strongest faith, this Christian Rock song somehow touched me. I feel like it could have been any genre of music but it was the lyrics that really just said what I needed to hear at that point. From hearing the lead singer’s voice, I even came to believe that even through all my imperfections and scars, I was somehow flawless. As a result, this song quickly became to be one of my favorite songs and is played on repeat whenever I am going through a rough patch.
