God Is Like Andy Taylor Not Barney Fife

One of the greatest illustrations that the Lord revealed to me about 5 years ago concerning law and grace, punishment and pardon comes from the Andy Griffith Show. Deputy Barney Fife represents the Old Covenant Law of Moses while Sheriff Andy Taylor represents the New Covenant Grace of God. Barney is a stickler of the law and is always at odds with the citizens of Mayberry because he is zealous of the law. He is in fact a religiously legalistic troublemaker. Andy, on the other hand, always engages in diplomacy and damage control as a grace enforcer as a troubleshooter when citizens have been hurt, violated, harassed, disrespected and terrorized Barney the law enforcer. Barney focuses on the religion of the law keeping while Andy focuses and relationship building. The law is about force but grace is about finesse.

There’s one reason why Andy is the Sheriff and Barney is the Deputy, it is because the law has to yield to the power of grace. The law defines me as a sinner but grace refines me as a saint. To define is to mark off the limits or boundaries of a person, place or thing. The law through the vehicle of religion is designed to keep you limited and restricted, where you can only go so far and do so much. To refine is to be developed and improved so as to be precise, elegant, and cultured in appearance, manner and taste with impurities or unwanted elements having been removed by processing. It is the Grace of God that is removing the unwanted and unnecessary impurities of religion from our lives by processing with the Gospel of the Grace of God.

Most people have believed and perhaps still believe that God is a lot like Barney Fife as a badgering, antagonistic perfectionist running around with a rule book trying to catch Mayberrians breaking the law and will consequently write them a citation or put them in jail. Andy, on the other hand, will listen to a matter without jumping to conclusions and will consequently offer advice, mediation, conciliation and other level headed approaches with wisdom and tactfulness. Andy always had to cover Barney when he fouled up and grace will always cover the damage inflicted by the law.

The church, in many aspects, for so long has had more Barney Fifes than Andy Taylors, more law enforcers than grace enforcers. The law says do but grace says done. The law says try but grace says trust, the law says behave but grace says believe, the weakness of the law is the flesh, but the strength of grace is the Spirit. The law cannot give life, it could only point to a standard of behavior that God would accept but humanity could not produce in the flesh. The law is a mirror, it can show you the problem, but it doesn’t have the power to correct the problem. The law can only find what’s wrong, but only grace can fix what’s wrong.

Barney Fife would often drive the citizens of Mayberry to insanity with the law. He would never let up and was always applying pressure to the citizenry. Andy Taylor knew how to deal with people just as Jesus did in the gospels with a gentleness and wisdom to win people over. When we understand the revelatory insight of the scripture and the directives of the Holy Spirit concerning the Grace of God, we can conclude that God is like Andy Taylor and has never been or never will be like Barney Fife!