¹⁸“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, Because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim release to the captives, Recovering of sight to the blind, To deliver those who are crushed, ¹⁹And to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” ²⁰He closed the book [of Isaiah], gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him. ²¹He began to tell them, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:18–21)

Jesus indicated here that he was anointed by God to preach, heal, set captives free, restore sight to the blind, bring deliverance, and more. We have come to believe this proclamation is literal. Furthermore, we believe that interpreting this otherwise would not be taking Jesus at his word.

In this chapter we intend to reestablish the OT Schoolmaster’s meaning and definition of the term “Messiah”, which literally means “Anointed One.” The Hebrew word for Messiah (mashiyach) and the Greek word for Christ (christos) are completely synonymous words. In both cases, Hebrew and Greek, the root words (Heb. mashach and Gr. Chrio) literally mean “to anoint with oil.” However, when these words are “transliterated” into our English Bibles as “Christ,” they lose the simplicity and clarity of the meaning. To illustrate this point, consider the following phrases:

1. Jesus the Anointed One
2. Jesus Christ

The first phrase describes something specific even to us English readers. The second phrase is more ambiguous in English and allows us to attach whatever meaning our tradition would like.

So then, in the original languages, the word clearly described the one who is “given” authority, which stands in stark contrast to God who gave him that authority. This is how using the word “Christ,” instead of “anointed,” obscures the real meaning, and truth, behind the title. It is when the clear meaning is obscured that another meaning can be interjected in its place. Thus, we want to restore the original meaning by looking to the usage of the word in the Bible.

In the first instance of the word mashach in Genesis 31:13, God reminded Jacob of the stones that he had poured oil over. These were the stones that Jacob had used for a pillow the night he received his famous dream of “Jacob’s ladder” in Genesis 28:11–22. The next time the word was used, in Exodus 28:41, God instructed Moses to consecrate and sanctify the sons of Aaron into the priesthood by pouring oil over their heads.

So the first thing we need to understand about being “anointed” is that it meant something specific. Calling Jesus “Christ” wasn’t like calling him “Jesus Smith” or “Jesus Jones.” Attaching the title of “Messiah” to Jesus was to attach a title that described an anointing done to him by God. Yet there is so much more to keep in mind about what this title means and represents from a biblical standpoint. The point is that quite often those who use the title of “Christ” for Jesus don’t even really believe in what the title actually represents.

To continue, let’s look at some passages about anointing that were first announced in the OT and then realized in the NT:

You have loved righteousness, and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows. (Psalms 45:7 and Hebrews 1:9)

The Spirit of the Lord YHWH is on me; because YHWH has anointed me to preach good news to the humble; he has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. (Isaiah 61:1 and Luke 4:18; see also Acts 4:24–27 and 10:38; Psalms 2:2)

The first passage referred to King David, who was anointed by God. Hebrews 1:9 considered this same passage to be a prophesy about God’s Son, Jesus Christ. In other words, however much it applied to King David, it would also apply to Jesus.

Similarly, the passage in Isaiah originally applied to Isaiah, but it was also a prophecy about Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ quoted Isaiah 61:1 in Luke 4:18 and claimed the prophecy applied to him. In this way, Jesus described himself by using a great economy of words. First, by using the word “anointed,” he defined his relationship to God in understandable terms. He was saying that this verse which originally applied to Isaiah, also applied to him: just as Isaiah was anointed and sent by God (and thus was not God), in like manner Jesus was anointed by God. In addition, by referring to God as “Him”—in distinct contrast to “me”—he has indicated in the plainest terms that he is “personally” distinct from the one who anointed him. Thus, Jesus described himself in terms that are neither Trinitarian, nor Onenessian, nor with reference to a pagan incarnation of deity, but in a way that is thoroughly Jewish and completely in line with the Jewish prophecies of Messiah.

This is why it is so important to keep in mind that “Messiah,” “Christ,” and “Anointed One” all mean exactly the same thing. Let’s break out the dictionary to make the point as clear as possible. Vine’s dictionary provides a good definition of what it means to be “anointed” in the Bible.

The sacred use of oil was for anointing things or persons in consecrating them to God… Anointing was a symbol of the qualifications divinely imparted in the consecration of persons for the discharge of their office, whether prophets (1 Kings 19:16…); priests (Leviticus 4:3…), or kings (1 Samuel 10:1)… David was anointed three times in connection with his kingship, first, prospectively, 1 Samuel 16:13; then as king over Judah, 2 Samuel 2:4; then over all Israel, 5:3. “The Lord’s anointed” was the phrase used to designate the king chosen by God (1 Samuel 12:3, Lamentations 4:20). Christ is twice so designated, as the Messiah (Psalms 2:2; Daniel 9:25, 26…)… W. E. Vine, Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell, 1981), 18.

The verb for “Messiah” in the OT means “to be anointed” (mishchah, Strong’s H#4888). It comes from the root word anoint (mashach, Strong’s H#4886). The word has the following definition in Strong’s Bible Dictionary: “unction (the act); by implication, a consecratory gift.” This latter notion of a gift very clearly and specifically means that something has been granted or given to the one being anointed. For example, Jacob’s pillow rocks didn’t anoint themselves. Nor did the sons of Aaron anoint themselves when they were anointed by Moses. Thus, when Jesus Christ said, “ All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth…” (Matthew 28:18), this is precisely what he was referring to: the OT concept of being the anointed one and having authority gifted to him by God.

Now notice how the NT describes, very clearly, what this anointing means, and clearly states the same thing the OT taught us about being anointed:

⁴Nobody takes this honor on himself, but he is called by God, just like Aaron was. ⁵ So also Christ didn’t glorify himself to be made a high priest, but it was he who said to him, “You are my Son. Today I have become your father.” ⁶As he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever…” (Hebrews 5:4–6)

The whole point of being anointed is that it is an “official” act of someone giving or bestowing honor or power on someone else. It is absolutely NOT something one takes on himself. And ever so clearly, the Bible says, “so also Christ.” If words and language mean anything at all, then this passage is a clear, “it is written again” Scripture that completely refutes the Onenessian jumped-to conclusion that God the Father made Himself into the Messiah. If God anointed Himself, then by the very description given of being anointed, even He is disqualified! God is not the author of confusion and does not go against His own word!

This realization is particularly applicable to the Oneness view, which claims that the person of Jesus’ deity anointed Jesus’ impersonal humanity. This is how we know the Oneness position is not true: because Hebrews 5:5 explicitly said “so also is Christ”! Can it be said that Aaron’s spiritual nature anointed his impersonal human flesh? No! Therefore, the claim that Jesus’ deific nature anointed His own human fleshly nature is not just a poor interpretation, but rather is actually contrary to the Bible and its description of what it means to be anointed.

The kind of dishonesty that Onenessians perform with the word of God is hardly different than the hocus-pocus games of Trinitarians. Trinitarians claim they believe in one God, even though they believe that each of the three persons in the godhead is equally and fully God in his own right; in any real sense, that makes three Gods. Onenessians claim they believe Jesus the Son is distinct from God the Father, all the while claiming they are both personally the same. In either case you simply can’t have it both ways. What both of these groups need to do is abandon their man-made traditions and follow what the Bible clearly, expressly, and consistently describes: Jesus Christ is a man, approved, anointed, and sent by God—which means he is not God but represents God, and that is what gives him the authority he used!

Those attempting to prove Jesus is God incarnate usually jump to Hebrews 5:6 (above) to argue that Jesus was eternal because he was made a priest after the order of Melchizedek. Friends, that is jumping to conclusions, exactly after the manner in which the devil interprets the Bible. Although it is said of Melchizedek that he was without father and without mother (Hebrews 7:3),this fact isn’t true of Jesus. “For it is evident that our Lord has sprung out of Judah” (Hebrews 7:14). That is to say, we know from which tribe Jesus came. This shows us that types and analogies only go so far. Such theorists hide the real truth, and that truth is spelled out in Scripture. It does not need to be assumed or interjected or made up by any man. Rather than list the biblically stated conclusions, we’ve underlined them below so you can read them in context:

⁵They indeed of the sons of Levi who receive the priest’s office have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brothers… ⁶but he whose genealogy is not counted from them has taken tithes of Abraham, and has blessed him who has the promises… ¹¹Now if there was perfection through the Levitical priesthood… what further need was there for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, and not be called after the order of Aaron? ¹²For the priesthood being changed, there is of necessity a change made also in the law. ¹³For he of whom these things are said belongs to another tribe, from which no one has officiated at the altar. ¹⁴For it is evident that our Lord has sprung out of Judah, about which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood . (Hebrews 7:5–14)

Verse 14 clearly says, “Our Lord has sprung out of Judah,” so it should be obvious that, unlike Melchizedek, we do know Christ’s genealogy. Those who try to make Jesus a preexistent God or other literal, preexistent being based on the analogy of Melchizedek are jumping to false conclusions. Scripture never teaches that. Those who try to say Melchizedek actually was Christ are preaching “another Christ” than the one the apostles preached.

Let’s return to the OT to learn more about anointing, in this case of the kings, beginning with Saul. Here we have God speaking to Samuel the prophet:

Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man out of the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel; and he shall save my people out of the hand of the Philistines: for I have looked on my people, because their cry is come to me. (1 Samuel 9:16)

Then Samuel took the vial of oil, and poured it on his head, and kissed him, and said, Isn’t it that YHWH has anointed you to be prince over his inheritance? (1 Samuel 10:1)

Note carefully what the purpose of the anointing of a king means: that the one anointed has been set over God’s inheritance! After King Saul fell out of favor with God for his disobedience, He sought out a suitable replacement and chose one in David, the son of Jesse:

²Samuel said, How can I go? If Saul hear it, he will kill me. YHWH said, Take a heifer with you, and say, I am come to sacrifice to YHWH. ³Call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do: and you shall anoint to me him whom I name to you. (1 Samuel 16:2–3)

¹¹Samuel said to Jesse… Send and get him [the youngest]… ¹²[Jesse] sent, and brought him in…YHWH said, Arise, anoint him; for this is he. ¹³Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brothers: and the Spirit of YHWH came mightily on David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah. (1 Samuel 16:11–13)

What is it that we learn from these Scriptures about being anointed? For one, David didn’t take the honor of being king of Israel upon himself. He didn’t overthrow some previous kingdom and thereby obtain the authority by force. Nor did he inherit it through his lineage as if he were inherently a king by birthright! Rather, he was called out and anointed by God into the ministry that God had chosen for him. This is the kingdom that Jesus ultimately inherited from David, but even then Jesus still had to be anointed by God in order to have it given to him by God.

Now notice how consistent the words of Peter are on the Day of Pentecost regarding this exact same theme:

²²Men of Israel, hear these words! Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God to you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, even as you yourselves know, ²³him, being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God , you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed… ³⁶ Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord [King] and Christ [the Anointed One], this Jesus [a man approved by God] whom you crucified. (Acts 2:22–23, 36)

This Jesus was a man who was made Lord and Christ in the same manner by which David was made a king. Keep in mind that God was not “made” God or Lord by anyone, but Jesus, God’s Son, was! Not another Jesus, this Jesus, the one that is and was a man approved by God and who, by that fact, is distinct from the person of God. There is no reason to give something to someone (like God) who already has those things (i.e., Exodus 19:5; Job 41:11). God imparted the offices of prophet, priest, king, and anointed one (messiah) upon this Jesus. That was the plain truth that Peter told the Jews to accept and believe for their salvation. And that is what Jesus testified of himself.

What does all this teach us about the title of “Christ”? Very simply, to say that Jesus is “Christ” is to say it was given to him to be the anointed one (messiah). To say Jesus is “Christ” is to say he was not inherently anointed, but that God had to give an anointing to him . The definition of anointing includes the qualification that no one, including and particularly Christ, takes this upon himself, but rather is called by God just as Aaron was:

⁴Nobody takes this honor on himself, but he is called by God, just like Aaron was. ⁵So also Christ didn’t glorify himself to be made a high priest, but it was he who said to him, “You are my Son. Today I have become your father.” ⁶As he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever…” (Hebrews 5:4–6)

Those who say that Christ was made of dual natures deny the truth that is simply stated in this passage! That is, they are against (anti) the definition of Christ; therefore, they are, as the Bible correctly identifies them: “anti-christ-ians.”

Thus, to call Jesus “Christ” is, technically, to absolutely deny that he is inherently God, because if he were God, if he were the very person of God who incarnated Himself as a man, he would need nothing added or given to Him, and he would be disqualified of the title of Christ since an anointed one is one who does not take this honor upon one’s self! Those who believe that Jesus is a dual-natured God-man hybrid (as both Trinitarians and Onenessians believe) should stop calling him by the title “Christ,” because the thoughts are actually contradictory and mutually exclusive!

When Onenessians and Trinitarians call Jesus by the title “Christ,” they are, literally and technically, denouncing their own doctrines by that word. These folks need to make up their minds: either Jesus truly is “Christ” (“the Anointed One”), or he is God incarnate. If Jesus is Christ, as the Bible says, then Jesus is a man who was anointed by God and did not take this honor unto himself, just like Aaron didn’t and just like David didn’t, or anyone else that was ever anointed by God.

In the beginning of this section we quoted Hebrews 5:12–6:3, which in part says, ¹²“…when… you ought to be teachers, you again need to have someone teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God… ^6:1“Therefore leaving the doctrine of the first principles of Christ, let us press on to perfection—not laying again a foundation…” (Hebrews 5:12–6:3)

The natural tendency when we are being corrected is to become defensive, which often includes shooting the messenger. That isn’t the commanded biblical way to respond, which is to search the Scriptures whether these things be so. We are confident that we have provided enough biblical basis, in these last five chapters particularly, to show Onenessians that they haven’t been holding onto the first principles of the oracles of God but have gone ahead and laid a different foundation that the apostles never laid.

Jumping to Conclusions versus “It is Written”: The very title of Christ, the Anointed One, is one of the rudimentary principles that is taught in the word of God. Its biblical meaning throughout the OT and NT refutes both the Onenessian and the Trinitarian theories claiming that Jesus is inherently God, for it is written:

⁴Nobody takes this honor on himself, but he is called by God, just like Aaron was. ⁵So also Christ didn’t glorify himself to be made a high priest, but it was he who said to him, “You are my Son. Today I have become your father.” ⁶As he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever…” (Hebrews 5:4–6)

The OT Schoolmaster: The idea that to be the Messiah, or Christ, means to have received a consecratory gift is well established throughout the OT.

Teach no other doctrine: The idea that Jesus is inherently God is contradicted by the very truth that he is called “The Anointed One” (Christ). It is a biblically stated truth, by the biblical definition of what it means to be “anointed” as Aaron was, that Jesus did not take this honor upon himself but was given this honor by God.

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