Transcript
Stephen:
In Luke chapter 2, the angels speak, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour which is Christ the Lord.” What does this title Christ mean? It seems key.
Joel:
Yeah, very important. A very important announcement. And there’s a lot of confusion about this. Some people actually think this is Jesus’s surname – you know, like Smith or Taylor or whatever. His name is Jesus Christ. That’s not correct at all. The word Christ means anointed one. People may be familiar with the term Messiah. It actually has the exact same meaning. Messiah comes from the Hebrew word, Christ comes from the Greek word, and they both speak about the anointed one – the one of God’s choosing, the one who has come in the fulfillment of promise.
Stephen:
Yeah. So often in the Old Testament, you would have had men anointed for special purposes. King David was anointed. Priests were anointed. Prophets were anointed. There was a Saviour born who is Christ – this special one, this one that was looked for, was hoped for. And so, for us to understand who Christ is, we actually need to go back into Israel’s history. That’s where we’re going to understand the concept of Christ.
Joel:
Yeah. Because Jesus doesn’t just emerge on the scene without warning. His coming is anticipated all throughout the Bible. Actually, there have been things that have been pointing towards this right from the very beginning in Genesis chapter 3 – just in the immediate aftermath of the fall. God makes a promise that there will be a seed, a descendant of the woman, who will crush the head of the serpent.
And as you move through the Old Testament, you find time and time again promises about this one who will come – a deliverer, a human descendant who will be born in Bethlehem, who will be God’s chosen king, who will put down evil and destroy it forever. It’s into that context, and in that hope, and in light of those promises, that the Christ, the anointed one, comes.
And you pointed out before that there were people who were given special roles of service – prophets, priests, and kings. It’s interesting that in the New Testament, Jesus is actually uniquely described as all three.
Stephen:
That message from the angels to the shepherds was that the one who’s born is the special one – the one we’ve been waiting for, the one who’s going to fulfill all of our hopes for blessing and deliverance. He’s here. And maybe most of all, this Christ – he’s the Lord.
Joel:
So that Old Testament title that belongs to God – he is the Lord. That was the relational name, the covenantal name that God used whenever he wanted to remind his people of their relationship with him. He described himself as the Lord.
This one – this Christ – comes forth. He is a Saviour who is Christ the Lord. Not only is he the Lord, not only is he the God of the Old Testament, but he’s the Saviour.
And this is a challenge for everyone. I suppose we’re all looking for a Saviour. Life feels empty and barren and meaningless. We’re all looking for something, someone to lift us out of that. People look to money, relationships, technology, sport – whatever it might be. We’re all looking for deliverance from something.
What the title Christ tells us is that deliverance – that salvation – is uniquely and solely found in the person of the Lord Jesus. Only he can deliver us from the despair that sin has brought into this world. Only in him can we find the fulfillment, the joy, the meaning, and the satisfaction that our souls long for.
Stephen:
Yeah. And with the idea of Christ, it’s almost like there’s a spotlight on him – God saying, “This is the one. This is the one that you need to pay attention to. This is the one who’s going to save you.” And that still stands today. We need to look to Jesus the Christ – God’s anointed, the one, the special one in the midst of all of history. This is our hope. This is the one who can deliver and save us.
