British actor and comedian Russell Brand has recently embraced the Christian faith after realising that his old life of raucous behaviour left him feeling “empty”. The 48-year-old was baptised last month in the River Thames, assisted by TV presenter and adventurer Bear Grylls, after exploring Christianity for several months.
In a TikTok video, Russell Brand said that his journey of learning and growing in his faith so far has been “beautiful”. He explained that:
“Repentance, to repent, means that you have to continually change and acknowledge that I am in a battle against myself, that I need to surrender myself to an ever-present, internal and accessible Jesus, that mercy is something that’s given to me, been granted to me, that I live with through love, not something that I can sort of win or achieve by doing good deeds.”
Although God’s grace isn’t achieved through good behaviour, Brand has highlighted that when he now feels himself acting selfishly, or doing things he’s “not supposed to do”, there is an “inner illumination” available to him, that helps him to adjust his ways to act in accordance with his faith. He admits that he is still early on in his journey of learning, but is excited to grow in his Christian faith.
He then said that he loved the “simplicity” of the Christian faith and that God came to earth as a man and sacrificed himself “because that’s the only sacrifice that could bring us home, that could give us the opportunity for redemption”. In speaking openly on his social media about his journey in faith, Brand has been able to share the gospel with his millions of followers. He expressed how pleased he is that he is starting “lots of conversations” about God through sharing his own journey of faith, and hopes that it will allow others to start thinking about Christianity, perhaps for the first time.
