THE PASSION OF

THE CHRIST OR THE

EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES

 

 

I've never seen a Jesus film yet that I've liked. I've seen many of them. I even went and saw The Gospel of John which recently played in theaters across America and was produced by Christians. Every Christian who saw it declared it to be good and biblically accurate. So I decided to give it a whirl. I left the theater fuming after sitting through nearly three hours of film wherein the Bible and history was rewritten so that Mary Magdelene became the 13th apostle.

I was hoping that Mel Gibson’s film - The Passion of the Christ - would be different. Again, I was told how biblically accurate it was and how good it was. In fact, thousands of pastors and Christian leaders had seen it in advance and they were the ones declaring it to be good and biblically accurate.

Last night I was able to obtain a free ticket to the premier showing of The Passion of the Christ in the Milwaukee area, so I had a 48 hour jump on everyone else before it opens. My impression - they should have named the film The Passion of the Christ and Mary. The film is wrought with an unbiblical fixation on Mary, the mother of Jesus.

What is more disturbing and disgusting is the reason for the fixation. Mel Gibson clearly presents Mary as the co-redemptress with Christ in his film, a belief and teaching found in Roman Catholicism, and which is contrary to Scripture. Because of this, Mary, who is mentioned only once in the bible during the time frame Gibson’s film covers, is the focus of Gibson's cameras nearly as much as Jesus.

The co-redemptress theme is seen throughout the film. For example, after Jesus is beaten with rods, He is laying on the ground writhing in pain. He then looks over at Mary who is standing there watching. After transfixing on her, He then gets up to the astonishment of the soldiers who had beat Him. The clear message was that He was able to continue on with His redemptive work because He obtained His strength to do so through Mary. He was then beaten with a cat of nine tails.

In another scene, Satan (who had fought with Jesus earlier in the film) now fights with Mary while Jesus is walking to Calvary. She is on one side of the crowd and road, walking, following Jesus while Satan is on the other side of the crowd and road, walking, following Jesus. They are staring at each other, clearly battling as they walk along on the way to Calvary. Again the co-redemptress motif.

In another scene, Jesus is hanging on the cross. Mary walks right up to Jesus and kisses His feet. Blood is now smeared on her face. The imagery screams co-redemptress. She then says to Jesus Flesh of my flesh, heart of my heart (and here I cannot remember the further exact wording, but she says something to the effect of) Can I not die with you? Gibson was hellbent on getting his belief of co-redemptress across to the viewers. I could give a few more blatant examples of this, but let that suffice for now.

None of this of course is in Scripture. In other words, the film is biblically inaccurate! Once again, I still have not seen a Jesus film I've liked yet. Quite frankly, I think there are certain things that are better left to written form and should not be brought to film and I think Jesus life is one of them. Even the Gospels didn't go into the gory detail depicted on Gibson's film. When you know Jesus because you've been born-again, you don't need a movie to give you some sort of connection with Jesus or heightened appreciation of Him.

If you think that you obtain right-standing with God through Jesus plus Mary, you are sadly mistaken and have taken a position in opposition to Scripture itself. When you read the book of Acts and any of the epistles of the New Testament, you see that they preached Christ and Him crucified - not Christ and Mary. Jesus alone was the theme of their preaching and teaching for obtaining right-standing with God. Mary is never mentioned. When you truly understand the truth and beauty of this, you see how abhorrent Gibson's film is.

It is through faith in Christ alone because of what He did when He died on the cross that we are able to obtain right-standing with God, not because of Mary, nor because of any of our good works. Some have said that Martin Luther coined the term faith alone. This is not true. The New Testament repeatedly and clearly teaches that a man is justified through faith in Christ alone. Even Eusebius matter-of-factly stated in his Ecclesiastical History while speaking of some heretics, They insisted on the complete observation of the Law, and did not think that they would be saved by faith in Christ alone and by a life in accordance with it.

Eusebius clearly says that we are saved by faith in Christ alone. What then did he mean “and by a life in accordance with it?” He meant that good works are what follows true saving faith. Good works and Christ-like character are the result; the fruit; the evidence of saving faith. The Protestant Reformers were trying to restore what Eusebius and the early Christians understood.

This is why a familiar saying amongst the Protestant Reformers was - We are saved through faith alone, but saving faith is never alone. What they meant by this is that good works and holy living are to follow or are the result of our saving faith in Christ (that is why the notion that one can pray a sinner's prayer and then continue to live like a devil is as equally offensive to Scripture as the idea that we can obtain right-standing with God through Jesus plus works).

When we become a Christian through faith in Christ, good works and holy living become a part of our lives, but we can never use those good works as a means whereby we try and approach God. Whether we've been a Christian for five minutes or 55 years, the means whereby we obtain right-standing with God is always only through faith in Christ alone. The good works are the result or evidence of our saving faith in Christ, not the means of obtaining it.

We need to understand that, as Christians, we do good works not to try and obtain God's acceptance, rather we do good works because we have obtained God's acceptance. Many think of the faith-works controversy in terms of - I'm saved through faith in Jesus, BUT I have to do this and not do that. Rather they should be thinking of it in terms of - I'm saved through faith in Jesus, THEREFORE I'm able to do this and not do that.

Your saving faith in Christ is the means whereby you're able to do good works and display Christ-like character. Why? Because as the Scripture says in Galatians chapter 3, we receive the Spirit through faith. And as Romans chapters 6-8 makes clear, the Spirit is the agent who enables us to live a holy life and do good deeds. You cannot live for God without God.

Mel Gibson did a great job in his film of capturing the demeanor of the Roman soldiers. He did a great job capturing the demeanor of the Pharisees. He did a great job of capturing the dynamic between Pontius Pilate and his wife. Too bad he had to add false teaching that goes against the very Scriptures he said he endeavored to uphold.

Too bad also that because of a lack of love for pure doctrine and because of being caught up in emotions, the Christian pastors and leaders of this nation have praised this film rather than warn the sheep. I've seen the film and the emperor is naked.

There is no doubt this film will be a part of what brings some to Christ (your average pagan will never notice the co-redemptress nonsense). There is also no doubt that this film will confirm some in their idolatrous worship of Mary and damn them to hell. The final analysis is this: Because of this film, Jesus is the talk of the day. We can either sit around and bemoan the movie being out there or we can seize upon the moment and start talking and declaring pure doctrine and the truth of God's Word. I hope we focus on the latter.

“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”  (I Timothy 2:5)