Christ.

—Christ. First, He is Christ. This is not, strictly speaking, the proper name of Him who bears it. It is one of his official designations; and in this way stands in the same class as Mediator, Redeemer, Saviour. Jesus was his proper name; and Jesus Christ, or rather Jesus the Christ, is not like Simon Peter, or John Mark, a double name, but like John the Baptist, or Herod the king, a proper name, and a descriptive appellation conjoined. Christ is a Greek word, corresponding in meaning to the Hebrew word Messiah, and the English word anointed. The Christ, then, is just the Anointed One. Anointing seems, from a very early period, to have been the emblem of consecration; the setting apart of a person or thing to a particular and sacred purpose: and it appears that, among the Jews, consecration to the three sacred offices, the prophetical, priestly, and kingly, was indicated by anointing. In the Old Testament Scriptures, the great Deliverer, who had been promised almost immediately after man by his sin had brought himself into circumstances which made a deliverer necessary, is spoken of as God's Anointed One, with a reference to all the three sacred offices. David speaks of him as Jehovah's Anointed King, Isaiah as his Anointed Prophet, and Daniel as his Anointed Priest. During the period which elapsed from the close of the prophetic canon till the birth of Jesus, no appellation for the promised Deliverer seems to have been so commonly employed as this, The Messiah; and this is still the name which the Jews ordinarily use when they speak of Him whom they hope for, as “the glory of God's people, Israel.” Our Lord is termed The Christ, or Anointed One, as standing apart, by himself, far elevated above all other anointed persons; just as he is, amid the countless millions of the sons of men, termed The Son of Man. The appellation Christ, naturally called up to the mind of a believing Jew, and such were all the writers of the New Testament, as well as most of its original readers, much important and interesting truth respecting Him who bore it. The Christ, as they thought of him, was a person in whom all the varied predictions respecting the great promised Deliverer had found, or were to find, their accomplishment: the seed of the woman who was to bruise the head of the serpent; the seed of Abraham, in whom all the families of the earth were to be blessed; the great Prophet like unto Moses, whom all men were required to hear and obey; the Priest after the order of Melchizedeck; the Priest on the throne; the Root out of the stem of Jesse; the Branch of Jehovah; the Angel of the covenant; the Lord of the temple; the wonderful Counsellor; the mighty God; the Father of the future age; the Prince of peace; Immanuel, God with us; Jehovah-Tsidkenu, the Lord our Righteousness, our Justification, our Justifier. While the name Christ naturally calls up all the truth respecting Him who bears the name, it brings him especially before the mind as Prophet, Priest, and King; the anointed Prophet, Priest, and King; the Prophet, the great revealer of truth respecting the Divine character and will; the Priest, the only expiator of human guilt, and reconciler of man to God; the King, the supreme and sole legitimate ruler over the minds and hearts of mankind. And he not only fills these offices and performs these functions, but he has been anointed to do so: that is, in figurative language, he has been divinely appointed, divinely qualified, divinely commissioned, and divinely accredited; divinely appointed, “set up from everlasting,” God's “elect” one; divinely qualified, the Spirit of the Lord was given him, not by measure; divinely commissioned, “called of God as was Aaron,” “the Father sent him to be the Saviour of the world;” and divinely accredited, the Father who sent him bears witness of him, “both with signs, and wonders, and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will.” So full of meaning is the appellation Christ, a word which I am afraid we often use without having any very definite idea in our minds; a word in which, however, is folded up the whole saving truth, so that he who, in the true, full import of the words, “believes that Jesus is the Christ,” believes the saving truth, and has the privilege conferred on him of being a son of God.