If you have seen, or are going to see the movie “The Passion of the Christ”, then these questions will help in thinking through the movie, or in discussing it with others.  If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to ask. 

If you have any other questions, please call me, Pastor Chuck, at 455-4735 or 216-0155. 

These questions are too important not to seek an answer.  God loves seekers, and inquiring minds!

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Questions and Answers about The Passion of the Christ

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Questions and Answers About

“The Passion of the Christ”

1.      Do you know why Jesus had to die?

When learning from “The Passion of the Christ” the facts about Jesus’ suffering and crucifixion, it is essential to understand the reason for it.  One of the most important of the many reasons given in the Bible as to why Jesus had to die was so that He would receive the wrath of God in the place of others (you and me).  “For all have sinned,” God says in Romans 3:23.  And because God is just and holy, He must punish those who have sinned.  But because He is also loving, He was willing to send His Son—Jesus—to take the horrific blow of His wrath so that others might receive His mercy and forgiveness.  When Jesus allowed Himself to be tortured and nailed to that wooden cross, He was accepting God’s curse so that sinners could receive God’s blessings forever.  As Galatians 3:13 puts it, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.’”

2.     Do you know who really killed Jesus?

There is no single earthly source to blame for killing Jesus.  The religious leaders hated Jesus, so they arrested Him and delivered Him to the Roman official, Pontius Pilate, for execution.  He could have released Jesus, but Pilate, too, shares responsibility because he succumbed to the influence of yet a third group who contributed to the death of Jesus, the crowd in Jerusalem who kept shouting, “Crucify Him!” (Matthew 27:23).  In the end, however, it was sinners like you and me who killed Jesus.  “While we were yet sinners,” the apostle Paul tells us, “Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  No on can point a finger at any other person or group for the death of Jesus.  Our sins (yours and mine) were the reason Jesus had to be crucified. 

3.     Do you understand the role that God the Father played in the death of Jesus?

Ultimately, it was God the Father who sacrificed His Son, Jesus.  The Bible clearly says that Jesus was “delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23).  Jesus did not die by mistake.  Although our sin made Jesus’ death necessary, God brought it to pass.  So in God’s sending Jesus to receive His wrath so others could receive eternal life, sinners are saved from God by God. 

4.     Do you realize why Jesus’ death was different from the death of anyone else in history?

The death of Jesus was unique because His life was unique.  Since Jesus never sinned, He never had to die; rather He chose to die.  And because Jesus never broke the law of God, He could die as a perfect, sinless, sacrificial substitute in the place of lawbreakers (sinners).  As 2 Corinthians 5:21 explains, God the Father “made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

5.     Do you know why Jesus cried from the cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46)?

                  It was a fulfillment of Is 53:11-12. What Jesus was saying by that cry is “Remember Psalm 22 and you will know who I am,” because Psalms did not have numbers but were referred to by the first line of the Psalm. In fact according to Psa 22:24, God heard Jesus’ cry for help:  “For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.”  According to Psa. 22 it was the Father who was continually giving grace to the Son to endure the cross. It was God's will to crush Him because He became sin but the Father did not turn His back on the Son, but eventually gave Jesus victory.

6.     Do you know why Jesus’ last words were, “It is finished!” (John 19:30)?

Because of His great love, God sent Jesus to be the propitiation (the substitute wrath-taker) for the sin of people who did not yet even know Him or love Him.  “In this is love,” says 1 John 4:10, “not that we loved God, but that He first loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”  Once He had taken the guilt of our sin and God’s punishment for our sin, Jesus triumphantly declared to His Father, “It is finished!” (The work of redemption is completed!), and then He willingly died.  Jesus’ words in the Roman penal system meant the penalty had been paid, and the prisoner could now go free.  Truly, in Christ the debt has been paid.

7.     Do you see the relationship between Jesus’ death and His resurrection?

The resurrection of Jesus vindicates all of His claims.  Anyone could claim, as Jesus did, to be the only way to God and heaven (John 14:6).  But Jesus substantiated this and all of His other claims by doing something no one else had (or has yet) ever done—He arose from the dead, never to die again.  Moreover, by not leaving Jesus in the grave, God showed that He accepted His Son’s death as a substitute for the death of you and me, who deserved death (eternal separation from God).  The Bible is plain that the cross of Jesus, without the resurrection, would have meant, “your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins”

(1 Corinthians 15:17).  “But now Christ has been raised from the dead”

(1 Corinthians 15:20), as proof that Jesus’ death in the place of sinners satisfied the requirements of God’s justice.

8.     Do you realize what the death of Jesus can do for you that you could never do for yourself?

The first, among many things His cross can do for you, is this:  the death of Jesus can make you righteous in the sight of God.  No amount of good that we do can pay the penalty for our sin or earn us a place in Heaven.  And if we die without receiving the benefits of Jesus’ death, the wrath of God will fall on us forever.  Conversely, the Bible speaks of those who have experienced the benefits of the cross as those who have “been justified by His blood,” and declares that they “shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him” (Romans 5:9).  To be “justified” means more than having all sin forgiven.  It also means to be given credit for living the perfect life Jesus lived.  Only a perfect life earns entrance into a perfect world with a perfect God.  And only through the death of Jesus can we get the perfect life of Jesus that we need to enter heaven.

9. Did the Devil really tempt Jesus like the movie indicates?  Is the    Devil for real? 

We know that the Devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness at the beginning of His ministry.  We also know that Jesus often referred to the temptations of the Evil One.  And certainly in the Garden, as Jesus prayed, he was in spiritual battle.  I Pet. 5:8 calls the Devil a “roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”  Revelation calls him the great deceiver, and the accuser of God’s people.  The Devil would like nothing more than to defeat the plan of God, either in the day of Christ, or in your life or my life today.  He is a defeated foe, but he has not been removed from the world, so we face his schemes even today.

10.  Did Jesus really suffer as much as the movie portrays?

Many scholars believe that He did.  We know that Roman scourgings of that era were especially brutal, and that the military of that day had little concern for life.  It was a way of subduing the people.  But the scriptures also tell us that Jesus, the Servant of God, would be beaten beyond recognition. Is. 52:13-14 “See, My servant …..there were many who were appalled at Him-- His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and His form marred beyond human likeness.”

11.     Do you understand the central message of this movie?

Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, was crucified as a substitute for sinners, and rose from the dead to be King over everyone and everything forever.

12. Do you ultimately know the message of “The Passion of the Christ”?

It is summarized in one of the best-known and best-loved verses in the Bible:  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). 

May the Lord grant you to find in the greatest evil ever committed—the death of Jesus—the greatest, richest, and most satisfying blessing ever offered—God’s love, forgiveness and eternal life.  If you have never made a decision to receive Jesus into your heart and life as your Savior and Lord, then please do so now.  How, you ask?  Simply admit that you are a sinner in need of a Savior, believe that Jesus, God’s Son, died on the cross in your place, and that He was raised from the dead on the third day.  Then turn away from the sin in your life, and commit your whole heart and life to Him.  Jesus died for you; will you now live for Him???

Once you have made this very important decision, the Lord would want you to find other believers of like mind, and learn more from them on how to live the life that pleases God. (Heb. 10:24-25) And the Lord would have you spend time reading His Word, the Bible.  It is our guide book for life. (John 8:31-32)  If you need a good, readable Bible in up to date English (or any other language) let us know, and we can assist you.