The Christ, the King

"Christ" is not Jesus' name, but his office. It is exactly like our word, "president." We may speak of President Obama, but "President" is his office, not his name. We may also talk about Obama, the President of the United States. You will find Scriptures that talk about "Jesus, the Christ," "Jesus Christ," or "Christ Jesus." The proclamation that "Jesus is the Christ" was so often on the lips of the apostles that it became the name of the new Jewish sect: "Christianity" (Acts 11:26).

"Christ" is the English transliteration of the Greek word, "christos," which means "anointed one" in English.

"Christ" was the word chosen by the rabbis when they translated the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek.

The original Hebrew word for "the one anointed as King or as high priest" was "Messiah."

Neither "Messiah" nor its translation as "Christ" meant "God", "Savior", or "Lord". It meant a human being who was chosen by God to lead his People.

Today, when Christians say "Christ," we mean nothing but "Jesus" and the word has come to mean everything that we believe about Jesus: He is true God and true Man, the Savior of the whole world, love, light, life, truth, the Way, the Bread of Life, etc. This is not the original meaning of the word in the Jewish scriptures nor in most of the New Testaments scriptures. If we use the modern meaning of Christ, we will systematically misunderstand what the scriptures meant in their original context.

See "The Trouble with Christ" for a longer exposition of this same idea.

Unlike Saul, David, the Kings of Israel, the Kings of Judah, or the high priest in the Temple, Jesus was not anointed with oil. At His baptism, the Father Himself "anointed" (christened!) Jesus with the Holy Spirit, the reality that had been symbolized by the oils used in Old Testament anointings.