“Thoughts of the glory of Christ are too high and too hard for us. We cannot delight in them for very long without becoming weary and turning away from them. We are unspiritual, our thoughts and desires being taken up with other things. If we would stir ourselves to believe “the things the angels desire to look into”, our spiritual understanding and strength would increase daily. We would then show more of the glory of Christ by the way we live and death itself would be welcome to us”

John Owen

If you watched the Olympic Trials on network television recently, you would have noticed a peculiar number of ads with odd depictions of situations related to current life and events ending simply with the words – Jesus, He gets us! I saw several and could not determine what was being communicated in the name of Christ. It is my understanding that these commercials also ran during the Super Bowl costing millions of dollars. I was curious as I saw absolutely no connection biblically from the scenes to the statement, “He gets us!” I have done a little online research and found the following. The campaign’s stated goal is to, “Reintroduce people to the Jesus of the Bible.” These ads are designed to cater to younger demographics by allusions to social movements on inclusion, with emphasis on God’s love for everyone.  Pictures portray Christianity as being for human rights, and against all forms of exclusion. One of the online discussions says that Jesus let His hair down. He lived life to the full. Some of the ads show people washing each other’s feet because this is what Christ did for His disciples. From the foot washing the conclusion is stated on the promotional website – “He gets us” that is, “We begin to imagine a world where ideological others will set their differences aside and wash one another’s feet.”

I thought I had seen everything conceivable in the name of Christ, but this one is the epitome of the mind of so many today who claim Christ as their Savior, yet by their treatment of Him and His Word show that they have no idea of whom they speak. Psalm 50:21 says, “You thought that I was just like you.” This kind of misguided treatment of our Lord and His Word addresses the blindness of those trying to make our Lord a God of their own design, and especially to fit this sinful culture. They want our Lord Jesus to be hip for the lost people. They want Him to fix what they have drummed up as the social ills of this wicked age. Christians who love God’s Word and proclaim the truth about sin are routinely accused of “hatred” for holding to biblical realities about gender, sexuality, life, spirituality, and so forth. They will accept or at the least go along with homosexual and LGBT agendas because our society is so steeped in sin that to oppose these sins or other sins of the culture is claimed to be “hate speech.” So, the attempt is to engage in a sense of go along to echo the modern culture’s demand that churches abandon biblical standards and truth. 

Where is man’s real problem in sin addressed in these advertisements? Why is it that man even needs a Savior? Where is the truth of why it was necessary for the Son of God to die on a cross?  The idea of “He gets us” is a call to bring Christ down to our foolish and sinful level. It implies that God is willing to be like us and compromise His holy character. “He Gets Us” can rightly be interpreted as a man-centered twisting of the truth of God into a call to embrace or affirm things that God has called sinful. This kind of presentation insinuates our Lord is embracing all the wickedness of this generation. Instead of showing who Christ is, the imagery is patterned to make people living without God somehow feel Christ Jesus is like them and therefore we are back to the, “I am alright and you are alright” slogan of the 1970’s. I would simply remind us of 1 John 2:15-17, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts, but the one who does the will of God lives forever.” We must by faith and the power of God, do the will of the Father. We don’t look for Jesus to get us, but instead in reality we must get Him. He is found in the holy Scripture not in man’s foolish remake of that which pleases the flesh, using His name, misinterpreting Scripture to fit man-centered ideas, and creating a god of man’s own design.

We are in a study of the doctrines of grace on some Sunday evenings and in particular looking at Soli Deo Gloria, or to God alone be the glory. The assemblies who have abandoned the God of the Bible have remade a god of their own. These ads are exhibit A. This kind of thing does more damage to the name of Christ than profanity. Here are people claiming Christ and setting out to introduce Him to the unsaved world as one of them.  How must Christ be presented to the world? He must be presented as who He really is. He is our God, our Creator, our Judge, and only Savior who is coming again to render to everyone according to their deeds (Romans 2:6).  The point is this, how can, “He gets us” lead anyone toward the truth when instead it takes them from the truth?  Some think that well-intentioned Christians are simply trying to make a connection back into the world because the church has lost its influence. This is especially true with the younger people who are those comprising the next generation. But just as Paul expressed that ear tickling, telling people what they want to hear, will not do, it is only the truth of the Gospel that can transform lives, and that is what is needed regardless of the age. It is only the truth that sets men free. The message of Christ is not one of becoming like the world with a Christian tag, but a message of transformation. It is a message to come out of the world and be separate (2 Cor. 6:17). To embrace Christ is to abandon the old life and see Him as our Lord and only Savior.  It is a message that cannot be changed and needs no alteration or correction. Let us remember the Words of Christ Himself, “My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me” (John 10:27). We dare not change the message of Christ to accommodate this wicked generation. Those who have ears to hear will come out of the darkness and embrace Christ when His Word is truly presented. May God help us to stay on course loving His Word and looking exclusively to Him.