LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
What Is His Name?
Christ
Harry Foster
Unlike Jehovah and Jesus, the Holy Spirit has no personal name; yet He is the One responsible for this special title of Christ which we so often give to God's Son. Both the Greek word 'Christ' and its Hebrew equivalent 'Messiah' signify that the One so called is God's anointed. An anointed man was a man of the Spirit, a man so endued with divine authority and backing that he could perfectly do God's will.
Jesus of Nazareth gave full proof of His special anointing, for from the moment when the Spirit came upon Him at Jordan until He breathed out His last on the cross it was evident that "God was with him" (Acts 10:38). At the beginning of His public ministry Jesus openly laid claim to this 'Christ' experience (Luke 4:18). It is clear that although He had been born of the Spirit, something happened at His water baptism which singled Him out not only as God's beloved Son but also as His commissioned and empowered Representative, His anointed. The Holy Spirit, who ever proceeds from the Father, did not merely descend upon Jesus but remained on Him permanently (John 1:33); He was not just One who had had a 'Christ' experience but He was the Christ. He moved about under the Spirit's leading, acted by the Spirit's power and maintained mutual relationship with the Father by the Spirit's fellowship, and so was rightly identified as the Christ.
Whatever the actual text of John 3:34, there can be little doubt that the context marks out the Son as the One who enjoys the Father's measureless gift of the Spirit. In His case God has no reserves; all the infinite fullness of the Spirit is freely available to the Christ. But although there is only one Christ, there are -- thank God -- many who are 'in Christ' and so enjoying their share in the fullness. When John the Baptist recognised Christ by the Spirit's descent on Him, he was able to announce that "the same is he which baptiseth with the Holy Spirit" (John 1:33). This stresses [119/120] the importance to us of the name 'Christ' (and consequently the tremendous significance of being 'a Christian' (1 Peter 4:16)) since it means that He is not only "the Lamb of God" who bears away our sin but the 'Baptiser in the Spirit' who fills us with divine life.
The disciples accepted Jesus as the Christ, but they found the cross such a stumbling block that they were in complete despair until the risen Lord had explained to them that the Christ had to suffer and die in order to make the promise of the Father valid to us (Luke 24:26). They accepted this by faith, and then proved it in experience on the day of Pentecost when, by virtue of His death, resurrection and ascension, He was able to pour out His Spirit upon them. This anointing did not make them petty 'christs', but it did release through them a mighty testimony that the Lord Jesus is God's Christ (Acts 2:36); 'Christ' was now no formal title but a pulsating reality.
They soon began to couple this title with the personal name of Jesus (Acts 3:6), often adding the further title 'Lord' and so completing His full description as "The Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 15:26). While still retaining the form 'the Christ' they tended more and more to refer to Him simply as 'Christ'. Indeed it seemed to become one of their usual ways of referring to the beloved Person who now meant everything to them. "To me to live is Christ" Paul affirmed (Philippians 1:21), and he also made the remarkable claim "Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2:20), basing all his future hopes on this new secret of living, "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).
As seems logical, all the promises of God are freely given to His Anointed, but by a marvellous redemptive act God has made all these promises available to us, too, by putting us 'into Christ'. It is not that we have a private and personal anointing; there is only one anointing and that is upon Christ; but what God has done is to establish us into Christ and give us a share in His anointing (2 Corinthians 1:21).
So it is that we have the seeming paradox of being 'in Christ' and also having Christ 'in' us. The phrases are not contradictory but complementary, both being necessary to explain our intimate relationship with Him. The truth is that the Spirit has produced this vital relationship which makes believers "the body of Christ" (1 Corinthians 12:27). John's promise of Christ's work as the Baptiser in the Spirit has been fulfilled and has produced this organic union of Head and members, all sharing the one full anointing and apparently referred to as 'the Christ' (1 Corinthians 12:12-13).
Any attempt, therefore, to define or describe why Jesus is called Christ is bound to fall short of the reality, which is so divinely marvellous that it defies analysis. The Lord Jesus has taken up the Old Testament designation of Messiah and filled it with such worth that it is seen to embrace all the eternal purposes and good pleasure of God for us men (Ephesians 1:10). No wonder that Paul longed with his whole being "to gain Christ" (Philippians 3:8)!
We need never fear that we will offend the Holy Spirit by seeming to pay less attention to Him. His supreme joy is the exaltation of Christ, and as we also make everything of Christ and come ever closer to Him in obedience and devotion, the Spirit will respond with increasingly richer experiences of the 'christing' work of the anointing.