What “He Gets Us” Doesn’t Seem to Get

A few people have asked for my thoughts on the “He Gets Us” campaign, which famously aired two commercials during last Sunday’s Super Bowl. The desire and intention of the campaign is to inform people about the life and especially the love of Jesus. It has certainly got people talking, hence this little bit of commentary you’re reading now. 

Now, when it comes to the Super Bowl, I am much more concerned about the food than the game, so I honestly did not see any of the commercials. I had to go back and watch them later. Upon viewing the two commercials I found them uninspiring (View here and here). They lasted about a minute and 30 seconds, costing somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 million dollars. 

I think the He Gets Us campaign has good intentions. However, simply having good intentions is not enough to isolate something from criticism. I am sure Arius, Pelagius, and Socinius had “good intentions.” When dealing with something as magnanimous as portraying the Savior, we cannot settle for anything less than biblical precision. We’re talking about the focal point of human history, after all. A mistake in presentation is not glorifying to Jesus nor helpful to his disciples.

At the end of the day, I find myself having at least three major disagreements with the campaign’s message and one major disagreement with their desired response. Below are the things the “He Gets Us” campaign does not seem to “get.”

1) Humanity's Fallen Condition

From the website:

"Throughout our shared history, Jesus has represented the ultimate good that humankind is capable of aspiring to.”

This statement misses a major point. Jesus nowhere says anything like this in the Gospels. Rather, the Savior has come to seek and to save the lost. Jesus does not come to encourage people to do good or try harder. He comes to save those who are immeasurably bad. There is only one kind of person living in the world, and that’s a bad person. Denial of a sin nature leads us to a place where we no longer need Jesus as Savior, we simply need him as an encourager or friend. 

How can one look at the world around us and think human beings are doing, “good?” While the world enjoys the blessings of common grace (medicine, transportation, technology), even these things are often used with bad intentions.

 Welcome to the revolution, where men can be women, a quarter of children are raised primarily by single parents, and our kids are more depressed than they ever have been before in life. What good, exactly, are human beings aspiring to? 

If human beings are good, where is the utopia that humanism promises? Perhaps we “aspire” to some ultimate good, but it is clear that humanity is only incapable of pursuing good things. The doctrine of total human depravity is the only empirically verifiably Christian doctrine, which this campaign seems to completely miss. 

At the risk of not sounding preachy, the campaign undercuts the Bible’s teaching on humanity’s wicked hearts. A better use of 20 Million dollars would have been 30 seconds of silence while projecting Jeremiah 17:9 on the screen.

Jeremiah 17:9 (ESV)

9  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

But, that doesn’t make for good advertising. Sadly, the truth doesn’t often sell. 

2) Modernity’s Implicit Bias

A second thing the “He Gets Us” campaign gets wrong is its view of modernity. By and large, the campaign appears to have swallowed all of the teachings of the Enlightenment in an attempt to rescue the Bible from earlier forms of thinking. This is what CS Lewis calls “Chronological Snobbery.” The idea is that those who lived in the past were not as smart or developed as we who live in the present. Thinking old is bad and new is good is a major hangup with the campaign.

Again, from the website:

"We look at the biography of Jesus through a modern lens to find new relevance in often overlooked moments and themes from his life.”

If you are looking for a modern Jesus, you will almost certainly miss out on a Biblical one. The errors of modernity are remarkably evident. I mentioned in my sermon last Sunday how the modern man cannot stomach the story of Jonah and the great fish, as it seems implausible. Modernity cannot handle the truth of the resurrection, for it violates empirical categories, destroying any hope of believing in miracles, the supernatural, and certainly Jesus as he portrays himself. 

Further, a modern Jesus will not call anyone a brood of vipers or a wicked generation. These things are insensible to a modern generation, because of their commitment to the innate goodness of mankind. As I mentioned above, modern man wants a humanity that is basically good, so we don’t need a Jesus that is completely God. The solution to the problems modernity has given us is not found in modernity itself, but in the truth revealed by the Ancient of Days Himself. 

This leads to a third problem I see with the campaign. 

3) The Unity of Scripture

We want people to understand Jesus, the campaign says. So they take time talking through things Jesus said. One of the commercials, after showing pictures of adorable children playing together says, 

“The commercial you just saw describes a theme we noticed in Jesus’ teachings. Jesus didn’t want us to act like adults.”

Compare this with what Paul says:

1 Corinthians 13:11 (ESV)
11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.

Or what Peter says:

1 Peter 2:2 (ESV)
2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—

Or what the author of Hebrews says:

Hebrews 6 (ESV)
6 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.

This too is an effect of modernity, compartmentalizing Scripture to pit Jesus against Peter and Paul and the rest of the New Testament. It’s clear, while Jesus holds up a child as a model of “childlike faith,” the Lord wants you to grow up into maturity. Followers of Jesus experience the freedom of a child, but they act like grown folks. At least, that’s what they should aim for.

This elevation of the words of Jesus above Paul and Peter is a modern technique which has resulted in misinterpretation, rampant sin, and denial of the gospel. If you only want Jesus, but not Paul, you’re actually going to be found disobeying the Jesus who inspired the texts Paul wrote by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. 

Consider what Mark Thompson says, 
“The words Jesus spoke may be especially treasured because they are the words Jesus spoke, but they are no more God-breathed than the narrative that surrounds them in the Gospels. They are equally ’Scripture.’ In red letter Bibles, both the red and the black words are inspired.”

- Mark Thompson, The Doctrine of Scripture: An Introduction, Crossway, p105.

The goal of the campaign is to “help people love more.” This is the language of works, not of grace. Do your recall what Jesus says to the lawyer in Luke 10?

Luke 10:25–28 (ESV)
25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

 "Do this and live" is the language of law, not of grace. We can’t do it. None of us have loved God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind and none of us love our neighbors as ourselves. This language of “loving more” simply republishes a law of works that only ever reveals sin, it never forgives it.

But Jesus forgives sin. He forgives sin by his grace. He pours out his grace by bearing God’s wrath upon the cross of Calvary. Only by Christ’s perfect work on your behalf will you be saved. Repent of your sin and trust in Christ. 

Ironically, this is the message missing from the campaign. 

Some of you might be saying at this point, “Is this criticism warranted?”

Absolutely. 

Notice this image, pulled from the website. 

If you want Jesus and not His church, you want a head and no body. Jesus Christ is the head of the Church (Eph. 5:23; Col 1:18). How on earth could you claim to love Jesus, believe the teaching of Jesus, and follow the example of Jesus and not love the church? Simply, you cannot.

To love Jesus without loving the church is the most severe kind of oxymoron, which this campaign dangerously advocates. 

Typically, in my little Monday Newsletters, I don’t give hot takes. However, I have had enough questions about this topic over the last few weeks I thought it was time to sit down and hammer out some details. How should you respond when someone asks you about the “He Gets Us” campaign?

1) Ask them if they know how they can be saved from their life of sin. Jesus is the only way. 

2) Ask them if they read the whole Bible and love what it teaches about Jesus. Jesus is the only truth. 

3) Invite them to come to church, where we will preach Christ from all of Scripture. Jesus is the head of the church, the Bride of Christ. 

I say these things because I am a sinner who has been gloriously redeemed by the God-man, Jesus Christ. I need the whole Christ if I am to be saved. A modern Jesus will not do. 

I pray you don’t settle for anything less than the whole Christ either.