Russell Brand Has a 'Sense of Peace' After Giving Life to Christ

Published: May 31, 2024

Photo from Russell Brand’s Instagram

Russell Brand Has a ‘Sense of Peace’ After Giving Life to Christ

By Movieguide® Contributor

One month after his baptism, actor Russell Brand is sharing how his newfound relationship with Jesus has changed his life.

“I’ve been a Christian a month now, and it’s been a big change,” Brand shared on his X page. “Not that I’ve entirely changed as a person, of course I haven’t, but I’ve taken on a lot of new concepts, and it changes you to accept that it’s not like you’re in a game show and by doing really, really good things you can get redeemed.”

“No, repentance — to repent — means that you have to continually change and acknowledge that I am in a battle against myself,” he continued. “That I need to surrender myself to an ever-present, eternal and accessible Jesus. That mercy is something that’s been 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.”

Movieguide® reported on Brand’s baptism:

“Yesterday, I got baptized, and it was an incredible, profound experience,” he said in an X video posted Monday.

He described how, in the past, he sought tranquility, peace and transcendence through substances. But “something occurred in the process of baptism that was incredible, overwhelming…I felt changed, transitioned,” he explained.

“I feel as if some new resource within me has switched on…this is my path now, and I already feel incredibly blessed, relieved, nourished, held…this is new to me, and it’s a joy to me,” Brand added.

Since his salvation, he has felt a strong “sense of peace” over his life.

“When I am in doubt, I feel the instruction there is accessible, and I know what I am supposed to do, and when I don’t do what I am supposed to do, that is even clearer,” Brand said. “When I feel myself being selfish or inconsiderate or putting myself first or not thinking about how I can be better to other people, it is as if there is an inner illumination available to me now.”

Brand then began to describe the Gospel.

“I love the simplicity of the idea of God coming to Earth as a man to experience what it is to be human and to sacrifice himself because that is the only sacrifice that could bring us home, that could give us the opportunity for redemption,” he explained.

“I like the idea, when I am in prayer and in communion just alone, that there is a figure available — wounded and coronated — available to me,” he added. “In my failings, in my failures and in my fallibility, there is strength to be broken. Not just broken by life in the sense, it is rearing and exhausting, but to be broken in the same way that you have to train an animal to behave itself, to be broken into better conduct. It is a beautiful journey to go on.”

Brand has been open about his faith journey.

In December, he revealed that he was reading the Bible and C.S. Lewis’ “The Problem of Pain.”

“In January, Brand posted a video of himself to X in which he wore a cross, explaining he wore it because Christianity and the figure of Christ were ‘inevitably becoming more important as I become more familiar with suffering, purpose, self, and not self,’” Fox News reported.

He was baptized in April. Movieguide® previously reported:

Actor and comedian Russell Brand recently shared that Bear Grylls helped baptize him in the River Thames.

“I want to thank Bear Grylls and my mate Joe, the two men who stood on either side of me and flanked me for the baptism,” Brand said in a video posted to social media. “It was pretty incredible.”

Grylls confirmed his role in the baptism, telling The Daily Mail, “Faith and spiritual moments in our lives are really personal, but it is a privilege to stand beside anyone when they express a humble need for forgiveness and strength from above. Friendships when we go through tough times are worth so much.”