I was saved in 1989, but I never really knew the Christian life as I should. My life wasn’t transformed. I didn’t feel power or see prayers answered. And so in anger and frustration, I decided to ignore God since He was ignoring me. And I thought I was happy living that way. I’ve suffered from depression for as long as I can remember. Of course, it didn’t get better. It only got worse. And I also began to have a crisis at work.
There were other, smaller things going on also, and they all added up to bring me to the lowest of low points. In my free time I was planning what would be the best and fastest way to kill myself, and, most importantly, how to do it without being detected. If I was going to do it, I wanted it done right and permanently. I didn’t want anyone to find me at the last moment and save me.
That’s the state of mind I was in when I went to see The Passion of the Christ the second weekend it was out. I was— and I don’t think I’m overstating it—traumatized by what I saw. I was so sick and stunned when we left the theater that I wasn’t able to drive. My husband had to drive my car to our house. I didn’t sleep but a couple of hours that night. I stayed awake reading my Bible.
It really hit me in the movie that Christ chose to die that horrid death for me. And I had been throwing it back in His face, saying it wasn’t good enough. Reading about it was like reading a fairy tale; it stays very abstract. Seeing it happen like that made it real, so very real. I had no idea what the depth of His suffering might have been like.
So many movies show a token flagellation, and the Bible describes it in a handful of sentences. This movie made it live, made it real, made me face Christ’s sacrifice and deal with it and the implications. I’ll never be the same person after this. I can’t earn what He did or be good enough, but I want to live now in a way that shows that I am grateful for it, so grateful.
Yes, now life is worth living. It’s sweeter and precious now that I truly know my Lord.
—Internet submission
Watching the movie was very tough, and there were many times that I had to close my eyes while my body shook in hearing the pain inflicted on Him. He endured it all for me, and the movie brought Jesus’ sacrifice to life. Now it’s time for me to shake off my struggles and press on for everything that God has planned in my life.
Tanya—San Antonio, Texas
The Passion of the Christ is a movie that has changed my life. It filled me once again with the Spirit, something that I need so deeply...
—Carmel Valley, California
I have a daughter in Dallas who called and asked questions for two hours last night. Also another daughter who called and talked for over an hour. A niece called this morning asking questions, and we talked way over an hour. This film is causing people to get back into the Word, which is really exciting to me. I’m 73 years old and I, too, have a desire to read the Gospels—beginning with John.
—Mary Lou, Brown City, Michigan
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Christianity is a religion that demands a response. It’s not a religion that says, now here’s some information, now go live a nice way. It is a faith system that requires us to respond and so this film helps us understand what it is and who it is we are responding to. What is it that Jesus wants from us if he went through what the motion picture said he did?
—Lee Strobel, bestselling author of The Case for Christ
Whatever we do, it is because Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for everyone, we also believe that we have all died to the old life we used to live. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live to please themselves. Instead, they will live to please Christ, who died and was raised for them.
So we have stopped evaluating others by what the world thinks about them. Once I mistakenly thought of Christ that way, as though he were merely a human being. How differently I think about him now! What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone.
A new life has begun!
2 CORINTHIANS 5 : 17-21 NLT