What is Wrong with the Movie “The Passion of the Christ” ?

• The Movie Focuses on Christ’s Physical Death – The movie places a great emphasis on Christ’s physical punishment and death and thereby misses the spiritual point about Christ’s suffering in enduring the equivalent of eternal wrath of God for the sins of His chosen people. We need to understand that Christ's physical death was not what saves His people. Rom 6:23 decalres, “For the wages of sin is death…”. And the death that God has in mind is eternal damnation in the Lake of Fire. So Christ had to experience the spiritual “second death” – eternal damnation – for every person He came to save. Since God is not confined to time and space as we are, it is only because Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man that salvation is possible for mankind. We see in Heb 5:7, that Lord Jesus was feared. Certainly he didn't fear them that are able to kill his body but feared God who is able to kill his soul. The movie only focuses on the first part described in Isa 53:3 but misses out what actually made the atonement described in Isa 53:4-6. However, if given the opportunity, we true believers should be prepared to talk about the spiritual aspects of the Atonement. We should stress that Christ in His soul existence endured the equivalent of eternity in hell for those who were chosen to be saved from before the foundation of the world.

Isa 53:3 “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

Isa 53:4-6 “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

Isa 53:10-11 “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. 11He [God the father] shall see of the travail of his [God the Son] soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.”

Psa 16:10 “For thou [God the Father] wilt not leave my [Lord Jesus Christ] soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.”

Heb 5:7 “Who [Lord Jesus Christ] in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death [soul and body in hell], and was heard in that he feared;”

Matt 10:28 “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him [God] which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

• The Movie Places Blame on Jews Fueling Anti-Semitism - The secular world is concerned about whom to blame for Christ’s death on the cross. However, we need to remember that Christ became man in order to pay for the sins of His people. It was predetermined by the counsel of the Godhead before the foundation of the world that Jesus would be “made sin”, “lifted up” and become a “curse” for us. In that sense, we are all to blame for Christ’s death.

2 Cor 5:21 “For He [God the Father] hath made him [God the Son] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

John 3:13-15 “And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. 14And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so [in this manner] must the son of man be lifted up: 15That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

Gal 3:13 “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:”

John 10:17-18 “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18no man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.”

Acts 2:22-24 “Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: 23Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: 24Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.”

• The Movie Misses the Obedience of Christ - Also central to the Christian Gospel, but missing from The Passion of the Christ, is the concept of Christ's active obedience. Christ not only died for the sins of His sheep on the Cross but he established their righteousness through His perfect obedience to God's Law. It is only His Obedience in dying on the cross and His Obedience in keeping the law are imputed to believers, that believers will be justified before almighty God. The Passion of the Christ does not even make any pretence of teaching the active obedience of Christ

Heb 10:7-10 “Then said I, Lo, I [Lord Jesus Christ] come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. 8Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; 9Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. 10By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

Luke 22:42 “Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.”

John 10:17-18 “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18no man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.”

Php 2:5-11 “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 9Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Rom 5:19 “For as by one man's [Adam] disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one [Lord Jesus Christ] shall many be made righteous.”

• Do We Need Movies and Plays to Preach the Gospel ? - The first reason why all visual representations of Jesus are lies, is because the only wise God went to great lengths not to leave us with any physical description of the physical appearance of His Son lest we fall into the sin of image making. One of the few details the Bible does give us about Christ's appearance is that “He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him.” (Isa 53:2b). While the Gospels, purposely leave out any description of Jesus that we might use to construct an idol, people have created an image of Jesus that has become almost an industry standard. God does not command us to produce dramatic presentations of Gospel themes, He commands us to preach. Though this option was freely available to the Apostles as they brought the Gospel to cities, with amphitheaters and a long tradition of using the dramatic arts to convey religious and moral themes to the populace, they just used “great plainness of speech”. They “have not followed cunningly devised fables” but preached the gospel: “not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect”. Dramatic picturization can only stir up emotions but do not have the power to revive a soul. Only God's Word has power unto Salvation. We must preach God's Word plainly because it always accomplishes the purpose for which it was sent.

Rom 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”

John 3:7-8 “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. 8The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the spirit.”

Isa.55:9-11“ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”

Rom 10:17 “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”