Some of the Super Bowl commercials that generated significant online buzz in recent days presented products like Dunkin, State Farm, Verizon, and Uber Eats. Yet one of the most controversial advertisements was a commercial claiming to promote Jesus Christ.

Christian financiers bankrolled an advertisement campaign called He Gets Us in an effort to “remind people that the story of Jesus belongs to everyone.” The initiative sponsored a Super Bowl commercial which contained pictures of what appeared to be a woman seeking an abortion, a family of Muslim asylum seekers, a homosexual man, and members of various ethnic minority groups concluding with the caption: “Jesus Didn’t Teach Hate. He Washed Feet.”

The commercial generated social media backlash from Christians who noted that absent from the advertisement was any mention of turning away from sinful lifestyles, implying that Jesus does not command repentance from his followers.

Jamie Bambrick, an associate pastor at Hope Church Craigavon in Northern Ireland, made an alternative commercial that captured how Jesus transforms those who turn away from their sin and toward him in faith, enabling them to gradually increase in holiness and obedience. The viral advertisement featured a number of Christians who were redeemed from sinful lifestyles followed by the caption: “Jesus Doesn’t Just Get Us. He Saves Us.”

Bambrick said in an interview with The Sentinel that he was concerned the initial He Gets Us commercial left viewers with the impression that “Jesus approves of our sins.”

“Of course there is truth in that Jesus serves and loves sinners. That is clear and Scripture would be supportive of that idea,” he said. “Of course Jesus did not preach hate, but the implication, when you pair that wording with all the images that you see, is that anyone who would disagree with a sinful lifestyle is preaching hate, and by definition not preaching the gospel and doing something un-Christlike. The gospel commands us to turn from sin. The gospel does not give us the option to follow Jesus and stay in our sin. To have a gospel that seems to not include repentance from sin is clearly incorrect and not the gospel.”

Bambrick, a prolific video content creator, noted that the Bible describes true faith as “more than mental assent” and a reality which is “transformative” in the life of the Christian.

“The message of the gospel starts with God himself. God is extraordinarily good, but also he is extraordinarily opposed to evil. He is extraordinarily holy and righteous. He has to deal with sin, and yet he still loves sinners,” he described. “The second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, comes and dwells as a man, and pays the penalty for our sin in his body on the cross. Through his death, burial, and resurrection, he provides a way for us to be made right with God.”

Bambrick noted that Christians stumble in sin but walk in a lifestyle of repentance and striving toward holiness in the power provided by God. “We are caused to be born again by the work of the Spirit within us,” he continued. “At the very moment we believe, we also turn from our sin. We continue to sin in many ways, but we grow from that and we are sanctified.”

The alternative advertisement indeed shows Christians such as former lesbian activist Rosaria Butterfield and former drug addict Jeff Durbin, as well as a former witch, a former abortionist, a former member of the KKK, and others who repented and found new life in Jesus.

Bambrick also told The Sentinel that he made the video in order to demonstrate that Jesus “saves us” from sin and does not “merely support us in sin.” He acknowledged that “there is more richness and depth to the gospel than can be conveyed in sixty seconds, but the heart of it is that Jesus does not just affirm or enable our sins: he delivers us from our sins.”

The minister addressed the errors prevalent among Christians in the West demonstrated by the He Gets Us commercial, specifically observing that such Christians tend to believe “we are inherently doing something wrong” if the gospel is met with a “negative reaction.” He cited texts describing the gospel as a stumbling block (1 Corinthians 1:20-25) and believers as either an aroma of death or life for those who respectively reject or accept Jesus (2 Corinthians 2:14-17).

“The Bible says that the gospel is a cause of offense, that it is a stumbling stone for many people,” Bambrick said. “That does not mean that we are doing something wrong. Sometimes it can be precisely because we are conveying the gospel accurately.”