What does the title 'Christ' mean?
'Christ' is not Jesus' last name: it is His title, the Greek word for Messiah, the Anointed One. Prophets, priests, and kings were anointed for their office; Jesus is the One anointed with the Spirit beyond measure to be Prophet, Priest, and King forever, and the resurrection is God's public declaration of it.
This question arose from studying Who is Jesus? and Why did Jesus call himself the Son of Man?.
Begin by reading
Go into the Word
Not a summary of these passages: the passages themselves. Read them, then come back to the study below.
The study
What the Scripture says
Christ is a title, not a surname
'Christ' (Greek christos) translates the Hebrew word for Messiah: 'anointed one.' In Israel, anointing with oil marked someone out for office: Saul and David were anointed king, Aaron and his sons were anointed priest, Elisha was anointed prophet. To call Jesus the Christ is to say He is the Anointed One, set apart and empowered by God's Spirit for His saving office.
Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brothers: and the Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.
Then you shall take the anointing oil, and pour it on his head, and anoint him.
You shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi to be king over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah to be prophet in your place.
The Old Testament promised one final Anointed King
The psalmist pictures the nations raging 'against Yahweh, and against his Anointed,' while God answers: 'Yet I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion.' Daniel was told the Messiah, the Anointed One, would come at an appointed time. By the first century, Israel was waiting expectantly for this promised deliverer.
The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take counsel together, against Yahweh, and against his Anointed, saying,
Know therefore and discern, that from the going out of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem to the Anointed One, the prince, shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks: it shall be built again, with street and moat, even in troubled times. After the sixty-two weeks the Anointed One shall be cut off, and shall have nothing: and the people of the prince who shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and its end shall be with a flood, and even to the end shall be war; desolations are determined.
Jesus claimed the anointing for Himself
In Nazareth Jesus read Isaiah's prophecy of the Spirit-anointed servant: 'The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor,' and then said, 'Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.' To the Samaritan woman, who spoke of the Messiah to come, He answered plainly: 'I am he, the one who speaks to you.'
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began to tell them, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
The Spirit of the Lord Yahweh is on me; because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to those who are bound;
The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah comes, he who is called Christ. When he has come, he will declare to us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who speaks to you.”
Anointed as Prophet, Priest, and King
The three anointed offices of the Old Testament converge on Jesus. As Prophet He reveals God perfectly, greater than Moses. As Priest He offered not an animal but Himself, entering not an earthly sanctuary but heaven itself. As King He reigns now at God's right hand, and 'of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end.' He is anointed not with oil but 'with the Holy Spirit and with power.'
For Moses indeed said to the fathers, ‘The Lord God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him in all things whatever he says to you.
But Christ having come as a high priest of the coming good things, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify to the cleanness of the flesh: how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without defect to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing that he lives forever to make intercession for them. For such a high priest was fitting for us: holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, on the throne of David, and on his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from that time on, even forever. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this.
even Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
The resurrection is God's declaration
At Pentecost Peter preached that God raised Jesus up and exalted Him to His right hand, and concluded: 'Let all the house of Israel therefore know certainly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.' Paul says Jesus was 'declared to be the Son of God with power... by the resurrection from the dead.' The empty tomb is the public coronation announcement.
“Let all the house of Israel therefore know certainly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,
because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.”
Believing He is the Christ brings life
John wrote his Gospel 'that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.' Peter confessed it at Caesarea Philippi: 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,' and John says everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. The title is not trivia: it is the confession on which life hangs.
but these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Whoever loves the Father also loves the child who is born of him.
As you read, you may wonder…
Scripture raises the next question
Studying the Word naturally opens more of it. Follow what you just read: it leads somewhere.
Hold onto these
Verses to meditate on
The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take counsel together, against Yahweh, and against his Anointed, saying,
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began to tell them, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
“Let all the house of Israel therefore know certainly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
but these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
Worth visiting