[8] The song contains references to Biblical figures including Thomas the Apostle and Elijah, influenced by Lacey's religious upbringing at Long Island's South Shore Christian School.

"[10] During Brand New's performance at the 2007 Reading Festival in the United Kingdom, Lacey said before playing the song, "I went to Vienna the other day and we were walking in the mountains, through this river and there was this landslide.

[13] Stereogum listed it as Brand New's fifth-best song, praising it as "the crux that all of the doubt and conflict on Devil And God, a reckoning with the Father that seeks approval despite all of the darkness inside".

[14] The Arizona Republic also deemed it the band's fifth-best song, noting how it sounded "a million miles away from the angsty formulaic pop-punk of the first album.

[17] PopMatters said the song "has more in common with Pink Floydian space rock than the quasi-emo outfits you might have previously linked Brand New with.

CD (Europe) 7-inch (UK) Dustin Kensrue, lead singer of the band Thrice, covered "Jesus Christ" in 2016 for his album Thoughts That Float on a Different Blood.