Glimpses of the Gospel in Film  

Ryan McReynoldsMarch 26, 2010 

The Invention of Lying (2009) is a flawed but very interesting film that surprisingly illustrates the uniqueness of the gospel of Jesus. Starring Ricky Gervais, the movie portrays a world in which only one man (Gervais) can lie. And in order to deal with the fear and uncertainty of death, this one liar invents a religion: There is a man in the sky who will reward you if you are good but punish you if you do three bad things.

This is not only a funny scene but as religion, it's typical. It's a great illustration of the kind of religion that humans make: save yourself through good works. Whether it's Santa Claus or the idolatries of Molech or Baal, human beings make religions that involve self salvation through avoiding "naughty" and accomplishing "nice".

The Bible presents an utterly unique "man in the sky" who is a trinity and accomplishes perfect works as a member of the human race (Jesus) and offers salvation freely as a gift. There is no precedent or successor for this "religion". Human kind cannot "invent" this kind of religion; it is too humiliating to the self-saved and too forgiving of the "sinner". It has been said that this is not religion or irreligion. It is something else altogether.

Perhaps Gervais (who co-wrote the film) intends to comically portray religion as a well intentioned lie. I tend to agree. That's why I'm a Christian.

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