Called to Excellence

Today I'm going to share a second main objective of God, which I call excellence. Excellence is one of God's objectives. For an example of this, I'm going to turn back to the account of creation in the first chapter of Genesis. I want to point out to you that every major stage in creation was followed by divine inspection. God inspected his own work, and only when he was satisfied with its excellence did he continue to the next phase.

So let's just follow through this process of creation, picking out the key verses in Genesis 1. First of all, verses 3 and 4.

“God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from darkness.”

He checked on the light, it came up to his standards, it was good.

“God called the dry ground, ‘land,’ and the gathered waters he called, ‘seas.’ And God saw that it was good.”

He was satisfied with the land and the seas.

“The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.”

That's the vegetation. It passed God's inspection, it was good.

“God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night.”

That's the sun and the moon.

“He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good.”

It had to pass his inspection, come up to his standard.

“God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.”

Fish, reptiles, and birds. They had to pass God's inspection, come up to God's standard.

“God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.”

The animal creation, again, had to pass God's inspection. He did not move on till he was satisfied that it came up to his standard of excellence.

But then we come to the climax, and the wording here is very significant.

“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.”

Notice, at the end, it was not merely good, it was very good. This brings out, I think, a very important principle. Each part was good, but the whole, when complete, was very good. The principle is: the whole is more than the sum of the parts.

Each part was good, but when all parts were brought together in harmony with God's design and God's purpose, the completed whole was more good than each of the individual parts. Each part, each phase, each section was good, but the completed whole was very good. The principle: the whole is more than the sum of the parts.

When we come to understand these two objectives of God that I've been mentioning, first of all, his own glory, and secondly, excellence, and that everything in the universe has got to pass God's standard of excellence, then we really understand, perhaps for the first time, the true nature of sin. Sin, in its essence, is failure to achieve the objectives of creation. First, God's glory, and second, excellence.

If you don't see it in that context, you'll always have a very incomplete and superficial concept of what sin is. Let me say that again, therefore. Sin is the failure to achieve the two primary objectives of the creator. First of all, his own glory, and second, excellence. This is very simply stated in a well-known verse in Romans chapter 3, verse 23, where Paul says,

“all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

That's the nature of sin. It falls short of God's glory. It fails to achieve his standard of excellence. You see, a lot of people are good, moral living people. They don't commit murder, they don't commit adultery, they don't steal. They say, "I'm no sinner." That's because they don't understand the essential nature of sin. Sin in its essence is leading a life that robs God of His glory and fails to achieve His standard of excellence.

Now, how can we give the glory back to God of which our sin has robbed him? The Bible has an answer, and it's important to see it. Paul gives the answer in Romans chapter 4 verses 20 through 21, where he's speaking about Abraham as our pattern and the father of all true believers. And this is what he says about Abraham.

“Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”

So you see, Abraham gave glory to God. He fulfilled the purpose of the creator. How did he do it? By his faith. He couldn't do it by morality and righteousness because we've all sinned. But out of his sin, in turning to God in faith and believing that God could do what he'd promised, he began again to give glory to God. So faith gives back to God the glory of which sin has robbed him.

On the other hand, unbelief continues to rob God of his glory. And then one more important point: faith, in turn, enables us to achieve excellence, once again. This is stated by the apostle Peter, 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 5, speaking to Christians who have become believers. He says,

“for this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness.”

But the word there translated goodness, actually in its basic meaning all through the Greek language up to that time, is normally translated excellence. Some translations say moral excellence. That's good enough, but I don't think it's complete.

I think God wants excellence in every area. That was his standard at creation. He's never lowered it. And the wonderful truth about faith is that when we have faith in God and in his power to do what he's promised, then out of that faith, we can add excellence. So faith achieves the two purposes which sin failed to achieve. First, it gives glory to God. Second, it enables us to achieve God's standard of excellence.