With the “He Gets Us” ad receiving so much attention over whether it offers an accurate depiction of Jesus, one pastor in Northern Ireland decided to respond with an ad of his own. Jamie Bambrick, associate pastor of Hope Church Craigavon, posted his video entitled “He Saves Us” and including the tagline “The Christian Super Bowl Ad They SHOULD Have Made” to his YouTube page. The ad features a bevy of people with changed lives, with Kat Von D appearing as a former witch, former gang leader Sebastian Stakset, former jihadist Mohamad Faridi, former drug addict Jeff Durbin, and others. “Jesus doesn’t just get us,” the ad ends. “He saves us. He transforms us. He cleanses us. He restores us. He forgives us. He heals us. He delivers us. He redeems us. He loves us.” It references 1 Corinthians 6:11, quoting, “Such were some of you.” The full verse, after listing off a number of sinful lifestyles, including thieves, homosexuals, drunkards, and extortioners in verse 10, says, “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”
Bambrick’s ad soon went viral. It has been viewed over four hundred thousand times on YouTube and has over two million views on X. It is the first time one of Bambrick’s videos has gone viral on such a level. “It’s been a little bit crazy, I’m going to be honest,” he told The Christian Post. “I’ve not gone viral anywhere near this level before. It’s been good, but incredibly positive and incredibly well-received, which has been a real blessing.” He told the Post that he felt the “He Gets Us” ad “isn’t a reflection of the Gospel.” He said he wanted his video to reflect “the heart of Jesus” and that calls to repentance aren’t about hate. “My experience with most Christians is that we actually love those who are in sin, but we love them enough to want to see them set free from their sin. We love them enough that we want to see them delivered and brought to newness of life in Christ; to turn from their sin and be saved from it — both obviously from the eternal consequences of sin, but also in this life, how much better it is to walk with Jesus,” he said.
He told The Daily Citizen that the “He Gets Us” ad was a “missed opportunity.” In making his response video, he said he wanted to offer something “better.” “I wanted to make it very clearly as close to the original as possible but with what I believe to be a much better message,” he said. He also said that some of the people featured in his video have responded positively with being featured. The Federalist lauded the ad, writing “Christians are called to care for, pray for, and love sinners, yes. But condoning sin, especially that of our brothers and sisters in Christ, is a recipe for hanging a great millstone around our necks and drowning in the sea… Followers of Jesus can’t continue in our old ways of unbelief, overindulgence, sexual immorality, or murder because we have been crucified with Christ and radically changed into morally righteous.”