Day 13: Christ, or Messiah

The title we’ve begun to look at yesterday was very simple, but infinitely meaningful: Saviour.

Today I'm going to speak about another title that is equally simple, and no less meaningful: Christ.

Some people don't realize that Christ is a title. Let me just take a moment to explain to you the background of that word Christ. It's taken from the Greek of the New Testament. The Greek word is "Christos" and that means, very simply and definitely, “anointed," and it implies anointed with oil. The Greek Christos, in turn, is a representation of a word already familiar in the Old Testament in Hebrew, "Mashia" which likewise means exactly the same, "anointed." In English we have changed it into Messiah. So Christ, in the New Testament, and Messiah in the Old Testament mean one and the same thing, the Anointed One. Furthermore, they refer to one and the same person, Jesus. It's remarkable how many Christian people don't realize that Christ is the same as Messiah. It's equally remarkable how many Jewish people don't realize that Messiah is the same as Christ. But whichever title we use, we mean the Anointed One.

Now, let's look at the message that was given by the angels to the shepherds at the time of Jesus' birth. In Luke 2, verse 11, the angel said this:

“Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” (NIV)

So the Saviour is the Christ, the anointed one. This was the fulfilment of God's long-standing promise to Israel, that He would one day send them an anointed one who would be two things, a Deliverer and a King. This was familiar to them. For instance, in the Book of Judges, God sent men of His choosing who became deliverers and ruled Israel for a while. And each one of those judges owed his ability to deliver Israel to the Anointing of the Holy Spirit upon him. And then after that, when God gave Israel kings, the kings were set apart by the ceremony of anointing with oil. This is true of Israel's first king, Saul. We read in 1st Samuel, chapter 10, verse 1:

“Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on Saul's head and kissed him, saying, ‘Has not the Lord anointed you leader over his inheritance?’” (NIV)

To be leader over God's inheritance, a man had to be anointed with oil. The oil, of course, being a picture or a type of the Holy Spirit. It's brought out even more clearly in the case of Israel's second king, David. God sent Samuel to the house of Jesse to anoint the king, and the appointed king was the youngest son, David. In 1st Samuel 16:13 we read:

“So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him [that's David] in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power.” (NIV)

So there we see David being set aside by the anointing with oil to be the deliverer and the king for Israel. And the inner meaning of the anointing is brought out from the subsequent statement, "from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power." So, the Christ, the Messiah, is the one anointed with the power of the Holy Spirit to be a deliverer and a ruler.

That there was to be a greater deliverer and ruler to come, even greater than David, is stated various places in the Old Testament. For instance, in Isaiah, chapter 11, verses 1 through 4:

“Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. [That's what makes him the anointed, the Spirit of the Lord resting upon him. Then the result is stated] He will delight in the fear of the Lord, and He will not judge by what His eyes see, nor make a decision by what His ears hear; But with righteousness He will judge the poor, and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; and He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.” (NASB)

Here's God's righteous king who's absolutely fair, impartial, and totally discerning in all his judgments and in the administration of his kingdom.