Messiah

Messiah (Hebrew māshiach; Greek Christos, “Christ”) means Anointed One — a person set apart for a sacred office by anointing with oil. In Israel priests, kings, and occasionally prophets were so anointed (Exodus 28:41; 1 Samuel 16:13; 1 Kings 19:16), the oil signifying consecration and the gift of God’s Spirit for the task. The reigning king was especially “the LORD’s anointed,” a title that taught Israel to look for a coming royal deliverer.

That hope deepened through the covenants and prophets. God swore to David an everlasting throne (2 Samuel 7:12-13); the royal psalms hail God’s Anointed as his enthroned Son (Psalms 2:2; Psalms 2:7). The prophets enlarged the portrait: a child born to reign on David’s throne (Isaiah 9:6-7), a shoot from Jesse’s stump endowed with the Spirit (Isaiah 11:1-2), a ruler to come from Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), yet also the Spirit-anointed herald of good news (Isaiah 61:1) and, mysteriously, a Suffering Servant who bears his people’s sins (Isaiah 53:5). Daniel even fixed a horizon for “an anointed one” who would be “cut off” (Daniel 9:25-26).

The New Testament announces that this long expectation is fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. Andrew tells his brother, “We have found the Messiah (which means Christ)” (John 1:41); the Samaritan woman’s hope meets its answer in him (John 4:25-26). At Caesarea Philippi Peter confesses, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16), and before the high priest Jesus accepts the title openly (Mark 14:61-62). He is the Anointed One in the fullest sense — anointed with the Spirit at his baptism (Matthew 3:16-17; Acts 10:38) and fulfilling all three anointed offices: Prophet who declares God, Priest who offers himself for sin, and King who reigns forever.

Because the resurrection vindicated his claim — God “has made him both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36) — the early church proclaimed Jesus as the Christ, and the title became so bound to him that “Christ” functions almost as his name throughout the Epistles. To confess Jesus as Messiah is to own him as the promised King and Saviour in whom every covenant promise finds its Yes (2 Corinthians 1:20).