Both Lord And Christ

“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Act 2:36).

My teacher told me the story of a brilliant young girl who came out of children’s service one Sunday morning and, running to her mother, said, “Mummy, mummy, can I ask you a question?” 

The mother said, “Yes, dear, what’s your question?”

“Can you change my last name?” 

The mother, not knowing where this was going and looking at her suspiciously, said, “Hmm. Okay, baby, why would you want to change your last name, dear? And what would you want to change it to?”

With a look of excitement, the young girl responded, “I want to change my last name to Christ!”   

The little girl had just finished listening to a Sunday School Bible lesson that was followed by a children’s service. There, she had been taught the word of God and had participated in prayers. The preacher had taught them the way of salvation that morning. This admirable little girl had listened attentively, received the word of God, believed, and prayed the prayer of salvation along with the preacher. 

The girl continued, “Mom, the pastor asked me if I believe what he told us about Jesus, and I said yes. And then he told me to repeat some words.” 

“What did he tell you to say, dear?” prompted Mom. 

“He told me to say some prayers after him, and I did.” The girl paused to see the reaction on her mother’s face, then continued, “And then the pastor told me that Jesus is my father now. Is that true, mummy? Am I a child of God now?”

Her mother was now beginning to see where this wise little girl was coming from, and where she was going with her question. “Oh, yes, my baby, it’s true. Jesus is your Father now!” she replied joyfully.

“Can we change my last name to Christ? My name will become Cleo Christ, since my new Father’s name is Jesus Christ. Can we do that, Mom? Can we?” asked the wise little girl.

This little girl got something in her request. She had just prayed the prayer of salvation that morning. The Holy Spirit bore witness with her spirit that she was born of God. God was truly her Father, and she knew it. She also understood that she was a member of the family of God, and therefore the new family name, the name of her new Father, now belonged to her. Her new Father’s family name would become her family name: that was the basis of the request from this admirable little girl. 

Young ones brought up in the way of the Lord are wise and really catch on quickly to the things of God. The seeming childish questions they ask are innocent and pure, and reveal that they are actually listening to the word of God being taught and understand what the Spirit of God is saying to them. Things that grownups with several years of education miss are effortlessly grasped by these pure minds. We adults need to learn from the simplicity of these innocent ones. No wonder the Lord, on the day of His entry into Jerusalem, said, “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise” (Mat 21:16). 

Of course, Christ is not Jesus’ last name in the same manner that Olarewaju is mine, or Smith is John Smith’s last name; but the spirit of the request made by this little girl was genuine. 

The name Christ is not an English word. Its origin is from Greek. The name came from a transliteration of the Greek word “Christos.” Let’s take a closer look at the Lord’s name.

The name Jesus simply means “Savior.” The name is from Yahshua, which means “Yahweh is Salvation.” Scripture declares, “Thou shalt call His name Jesus for He shall save His people from their sins” (Mat 1:21). This was the word that the angel Gabriel spoke to Mary. The name Jesus reveals Him as our Savior, and His name therefore is “Yahshua the Messiah,” or in English is interpreted as “Jesus the Anointed One.”

In the Old Testament, Meshiach (from which “Messiah” is derived) means “anointed.” The phrase “ha Meschiach” means “The Anointed,” and refers to a single specific Figure for whom the Jewish people were waiting as prophesied in Scripture.

To be anointed means to be sanctified, set apart for a task or a position by God Almighty. We find this same word used in the Old Testament when prophets, priests, and kings are being consecrated for their offices. These individuals were often temporarily anointed, empowered to carry out their tasks. All these offices were types that pointed to Jesus, the true Anointed One. He is the only one who fulfills all the offices. He came as a Prophet, He is now functioning as our high Priest, and He will return as King to rule and reign over all.  

At the beginning of His ministry, He entered the synagogue “and He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.’ Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’” (Luke 4:17-21).

After reading, He sat down, looked around, and made the simple yet almost incomprehensible statement, “This Day is this Scripture fulfilled in your hearing.” What a wonderful statement! 

The word “day” does not necessarily refer to that particular day of the week. It speaks of the “Day of the Anointing,” the day of manifestation of His power and glory on the earth. Three and a half years of glorious ministry followed that day. And the revelation was this: that the Lord Jesus was the first of the New Creation to walk in that Day, and that the others would follow in their order.

 “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth 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” (Act 10:38).

 “There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. His delight is in the fear of the LORD, and He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His ears; But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins, and faithfulness the belt of His waist” (Isa 11:1-5).

The Spirit of the Lord was upon Him mightily. This was His anointing as prophesied by Isaiah. The Lord Jesus is the only anointed man who had the fullness of the Spirit upon Him. “For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell” (Col 1:19). And “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col 2:9). “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions” (Heb 1:9-10).

However, we, the members of His body, are also anointed. We receive the same Anointing by the virtue of being united with the Anointed One. He is the Head; we are His body. Everyone who is born again is part of the body of Christ and shares the same anointing. The Spirit lives in us and comes upon us for service, and we are thus enabled to influence others’ lives by His working.

The Scriptures teaches us: “Now he which establishes with you in Christ, and has anointed us, is God; who has also sealed us, and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee” (2 Cor 1:21). 

“But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things” (1 John 2:20). The “all things” is in reference to distinguishing the truth from error.

 “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him” (1 John 2:27-28).

We have received the same anointing as the Head. However, the anointing that we have received of Him at this present time is not the full anointing, but a foretaste, the down payment, the pledge and token of greater glory still to come. “And not only the creation, but we ourselves too, who have and enjoy the firstfruit of the Holy Spirit—a foretaste of the blissful things to come—groan inwardly as we wait for the redemption of our bodies, which will reveal our adoption, our manifestation as God’s sons” (Rom. 8:23, Amplified). 

When God comes into us in the form of the Holy Spirit, the ultimate goal is for Him to be united with us, to be in us, and we in Him. However, the work of God to unite Himself with man is not instantaneous, but it’s a process. This process begins at new birth and continues as we are filled by the Holy Spirit. The process of transformation goes on continuously. It moves us from glory to glory, until we reach that perfect unity, that glorious union where we are so commingled with the Spirit that you cannot tell where we end and God begins. This indeed is the goal of the New Creation: man in the image of God, and God natively inhabiting man as in “Emmanuel.” And those who, with our blessed Lord, arrive at this wonderful stature are the sons of God, the firstfruits of His redemption, kings and priests upon His throne. 

One day, the Lord Jesus turned to His disciples and asked them, “Whom say ye that I am?” There was a long pause. They had been with Him for several months, but were still not quite sure how to answer this question. Then one of the twelve, named Simon Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, answered and said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!” The Lord  Jesus answered him saying, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven” (Mat 16:16-17).

The disciples knew that they had been walking, talking, and eating with Jesus of Nazareth, but they did not know who He really was. It took a revelation of the Spirit of God for one of them to see that this same Jesus of Nazareth, whom they had been with all that time, was also “the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of the living God.” When He was born, the heavenly host of angels had made this announcement to the frightened shepherds, saying, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord” (Luk 2:11). 

Many of us present-day believers frequently use the word “Christ” to refer to the Lord Jesus. However, very few know what the word really means, much less understand the message behind it. As stated above, “Christ” is translated from the Greek word “Christos,” which means one anointed with holy oil. The Hebrew “Mashiach,” from which we get our word “Messiah,” has the same meaning as the Greek “Christos.” They both come from a root word that simply means “to smear upon,” meaning to anoint with holy oil. So the name “Jesus Christ” means “Jesus the Anointed One.” 

There’s nothing particularly special about the generic word anoint by itself. But when you begin to talk about Jesus being the Anointed One, the One sent by God and anointed with God’s quickening, saving, and transforming power, then the word becomes very special. It takes on supernatural significance—not just because it’s some kind of religious term, but because of the powerful nature of the anointing of God and what it can perform.

The first time we come across holy oil in the Scriptures is in the narrative of Jacob’s experience at Bethel. “And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place! . . . And Jacob took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Beth-el” (Gen 28:18). And from that morning, all through the Old Testament, wherever there was a spot of earth to be consecrated unto God, or an object to be dedicated to holy use, or a man to be set apart and sanctified as a priest, or a king to be crowned, that holy oil was employed for that sacred purpose. Anointing oil became an important symbol of consecration in the Old Testament.

Under the Old Covenant, Moses was commissioned by God to anoint the priests. “Moreover the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take thou also unto thee principal spices, of pure myrrh five hundred shekels, and of sweet cinnamon half so much, even two hundred and fifty shekels, and of sweet calamus two hundred and fifty shekels, and of cassia five hundred shekels…and of oil olive and bin: and thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary: it shall be an holy anointing oil. 

“And Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation…then shalt thou take the anointing oil, and pour it upon his head, and anoint him. And thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister unto Me in the priest’s office” (Ex. 29:4,7; 30:30). 

Under the law, the anointing was the ceremony by which the priests were installed in their service. They were anointed for ministry with a special ointment, the “Holy Anointing Oil.” Three offices were anointed with the Holy Anointing Oil in the Old Testament: prophets, priests, and kings. Moses anointed Aaron and his sons with oil as priests in Israel. Samuel anointed Saul with oil as the first king of Israel. Samuel also anointed David with oil as king, secretly in the presence of his father and brethren. Later in Judah he anointed him again, and finally, he anointed him in the presence of the whole nation of Israel. In fact, David was anointed as king three time: first in the midst of his brethren in the hidden obscurity of his home in Bethlehem (1 Sam 16:3,13), then by the men of Judah over the house of Judah (2 Sam 2:4,7), and seven years and six months later, over all Israel, by the elders of Israel (2 Sam 5:3,17). The classic example of the anointing of a prophet is Elisha, who received a double portion of the anointing on Elijah when he was taken up from him in a chariot of fire. 

Because he was anointed with the Holy Anointing Oil, the high priest was called “the anointed” of God (Lev 4:3,5,16; 6:22), as were the anointed kings of Israel (1 Sam 24:6,10, 269-11; Lam 4:20). Christ (meaning “The Anointed One”) was anointed with the Holy Spirit and power (Acts 10:38) and occupies all these three offices. He is a Prophet like unto Moses. He is the Promised Son of David, the King of Israel. He is a High Priest forever, according to the Order of Melchizedek. 

Moses anointed Aaron and his sons. Moses was the mediator of the Old Covenant (Gal 3:19). The mediator of the New Covenant is Jesus. So, when you read about everything that Moses did on behalf of the Levitical priests in the books of Exodus and Leviticus, put Jesus in Moses’ place, and you’ll begin to understand what Jesus is doing in our lives to bring us to the Melchizedek Priesthood. It was Moses who anointed the priests of the Old Covenant, and it is Jesus who is anointing the priests of the New Covenant. Hallelujah! 

The Royal Priesthood, of whom Christ is the Head, receive their priestly anointing from the High Priest who is upon the Throne. “Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear” (Acts 2:33). 

When the firstborn Son received the Holy Spirit at His baptism, from that moment the Spirit moved through Him, His whole life became the revelation of His Father. The mind, wisdom, will, words, power, and glory of God were manifested through Him. And now, a company of “many brethren” are receiving that same anointing, so that many sons may be brought to the same glory in which the Christ now dwells. 

It is clear that the oil was not poured over the entire body, but upon the head alone, and that from there it flowed down to the body, even to the feet. The anointing of the Melchizedek Priesthood was poured upon the Head, the great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, and from Him it flowed down to the members of His body just as the Scripture affirms: “The anointing which ye have received of (from) Him abideth in you” (1 John 2:27).

Our Lord is the Anointed One, and like David, He is anointed threefold. The first anointing was, so to speak, secretly in the presence of His brethren. His first anointing was as the Messenger or the Prophet of the Covenant. He came as the Deliverer and the Prophet like unto Moses, and only a few seemed to perceive and receive Him.

 The other two anointings followed later. He was “Christ,” “the anointed” Son of God while He walked among men, but He was not the Anointed High Priest; neither was He the Anointed King of Israel. The Lord Jesus could not have been a high priest after the Order of Melchizedek while on earth, because He had not yet ascended into heaven and was not yet sitting at the right hand of God as foretold in the prophecy of Psalm 110: “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at My right hand until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool. The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedek.” (Psa 110:1,4). Jesus was not declared a priest after the Order of Melchizedek until after His resurrection and ascension into heaven, when He was invited to sit at the right hand of God. This divine arrangement is confirmed by the writer to the Hebrews: “Now of the things we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an High Priest, who is set at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true Tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.” 

The Lord Jesus could not be a high priest of the Melchizedek order until after His sacrifice at Calvary; He had nothing to offer as a priest beyond the same blood of bulls and goats offered by the Levitical priesthood, for He had not yet shed His own blood. The Scripture tells us that “Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us” (Heb 9:11,12). 

Before His crucifixion, He had nothing to enter the Holy of Holies with. In fact, He could not be a priest on earth because He lacked the necessary requirements for Levitical priesthood.

 “For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer. For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law” (Heb 8:3-4). 

“For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood” (Heb 7:13-14). 

The twofold anointing as King-Priest was therefore conferred upon Him after His resurrection and ascension into heaven. The Apostle Peter by the Spirit declares:

“Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, He would raise up Christ to sit upon His throne; this Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on My right hand, until I make Thy foes Thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both LORD and CHRIST” (Acts 2:30,32,34-36). 

The message is crystal-clear: Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed Prophet. He became anointed as the King-Priest upon the Throne of Almighty God when He ascended the Throne of His Father. He is now and forevermore a priest upon His throne, and His body are members of the royal family of priests. He then became the KING of kings and LORD of lords. Not only is He the Anointed One, God Almighty has highly exalted Him above all and made Him LORD and CHRIST. Blessed be His name forever more!