Christ's Name – Christ

The name Christ means anointed. The equivalent name in the Old Testament is Messiah. The following passage from the Old Testament identifies to us that Messiah and Christ are both names for the same person: Dan. 9:25 “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. 26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.”

There were two classes of people that were anointed in the Old Testament: kings and priests. The priests were from the tribe of Levi and the kings were from the tribe of Judah. The scriptures teach that Christ is both King and High Priest. Now Christ is of the tribe of Judah, which begs the question of how he could be a High Priest? The answer is that he is not a high priest after the order of Aaron, but a High Priest after the order of Melchisedec as the following verses show:

1. Heb. 5:6 “As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.”
2. Heb. 5:10 “Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.”
3. Heb. 6:20 “Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.”
4. Heb. 7:1 “For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him;”
5. Heb. 7:10 “For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him. 11 If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron?”
6. Heb. 7:15 “And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest,”
7. Heb. 7:17 “For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.”
8. Heb. 7:21 “(For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec:)”

In the Old Testament, the kings and high priests were generally anointed by a prophet. However, Christ was anointed by the Holy Spirit:

1. Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,”

2. Act 4:27 “For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,”

3. Act 10:38 “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”

The oil by which Christ was anointed is described to us as follows: Heb. 1:9 “Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.”

From the above we conclude that Christ was anointed by the Holy Spirit and was anointed with the oil of gladness. Moreover, he now serves as both King and High Priest of the Kingdom of God.

Christ's Name – God 

In John Chapter 1 vs. 1 and 2, Christ name – Word is equated to the name – God.  In v.3 the tie between the two was used in the context of creation.  So the use of the term, God, was in connection with God being the almighty and the creator of all things.  This is consistent with the statement in Gen. 1:26 that reads in part: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…”  This should cause us to realize that all three persons in the Godhead, consisting of Father, Word, and Holy Spirit were working together in the creation of the heaven and the earth and all things therein. 

The following verses teach us that Christ is the creator of all things:

1.  Eph. 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

2.  Eph. 3:9 “And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:”

3.  Col. 1:16 “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:”

4.  Rev. 4:11 “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”

5.  Rev. 10:6 “And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:”

These verses not only show us that Christ created all things, but it also shows us that he created more than just the natural universe and natural things within that universe.  He also created the spiritual inner man of God’s elect family.  We are new creatures in Christ Jesus who were created in Christ Jesus unto good works.  Since he is the only creator, we did not assist in any way in this creation of a new creature.  It was Christ’s work alone.  We were altogether passive in this activity.  This was a tremendous blessing to each of God’s elect family as they were made capable of understanding spiritual things and of seeking after God and in worshipping God in Spirit and in truth because of this work of creation called the new birth that Christ alone created in us.  Praise be to our God Christ Jesus.

Moreover, the tie to creation also teaches us of the intelligent design of God.  I have a flash drive that has 128 Gigabytes of data.  The drive is about 3 inches in length.  This was unheard of as little as 5 years ago that that much data could be stored in such a small amount of space.  In comparison, however, the human body is said to be composed of approximately 37.2 trillion cells.  The instructions by which the human body including all its organs and all its bodily structure are built and made to work in harmony and unity are contained in two microscopic cells that unite to form one cell.  That something so small could contain such an enormous amount of data and instructions to construct a human body is amazing.  This is the design of an exceedingly intelligent God.  This could not have possibly happened by chance.  Moreover, every creature has the same type of instruction built into microscopic cells.  In all this, Christ is manifest as being the creator of all things.  He has nothing to learn as he already knows it all!