(2.) While the statement 'Jesus is the Christ' is thus materially equivalent to the statement 'all that is said of the Great Deliverer in the O. T. Scriptures is true of Him,' it brings more directly before our mind those truths respecting him which the appellation 'the Anointed One' naturally suggests. He is a prophet, a priest, and a king. He is the great revealer of divine truth ; the only expiator of human guilt, and reconciler of man to God ; the supreme and sole legitimate ruler over the understandings, consciences, and affections of men. In his person, and work, and word, by his spirit and providence, he unfolds the truth with respect to the divine character and will, and so conveys it into the mind as to make it the effectual means of conforming man's will to God's will, man's character to God's character. He has by his spotless, all-perfect obedience, amid the se verest sufferings, 'obedience unto death even the death of the cross,' so illustrated the excellence of the divine law and the wickedness and danger of violating it, as to make it a righteous thing in 'the just God' to 'justify the ungodly,' thus propitiat ing the offended majesty of heaven; while the manifestation of the divine love in appointing and accepting this atonement, when apprehended by the mind under the influence of the Holy Spirit, becomes the effectual means of reconciling man to God and to his law, transforming him by the re newing of his mind.' And now, possessed of 'all power in heaven and earth," all power over all flesh," He is Lord of All.' All external events and all spiritual influences are equally under his control, and as a king he exerts his authority in carrying into full effect the great purposds which his revelations as a prophet, and his great atoning sacrifice as a high-priest, were intended to accom plish.
(3.) But the full import of the appellation the CHRIST iS not yet brought out. It indicates that He to whom it belongs is the anointed prophet, priest, and king--not that he was anointed by material oil, but that he was divinely appointed, qualified, commissioned, and accredited to be the Saviour of men. These are the ideas which the term anointed seems specially intended to convey. Jesus was divinely appointed to the offices he filled, he did not ultroneously assume them, he was called of God as was Aaron' (Heb. v. 4), Behold mine ELECT, in whom my soul delighteth.' He was divinely qualifiea' : God gave to him the Spirit not by measure." The Spirit of the Lord WaS upon him, the spirit of wisdom and under standing, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, and they made him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord, so that he does not judge after the sight of his eyes, nor reprove after the hearing of his ears, hut he smites the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he slays the wicked ; and righteousness is the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins' (Is. xi. 2-4). He was divinely commissioned : The Father sent him.' Jehovah said to him, 'Thou art my servant, in thee will I be glorified. It is a light thing that thou shouldst be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the pre served of Israel ; I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation to the ends of the earth' (Is. xlix. 6). Behold,' says Jehovah, I have given him for a witness to the people—a leader and commander to the people.' IIe is divinely accredited : Jesus of Nazareth,' says the Apostle Peter, was a man approved of God among you by miracles, and wonders, and signs which God did by him in the midst of you' (Acts ii. 22). The Father who hath sent me,'
says Jesus himself, hath borne witness of me' (John v. 37). This he did again and again by a voice from heaven, as well as by the miracles which lie performed by that divine power which was equally his and his Father's. Such is the import of the appellation Christ.
If these observations are clearly apprehended, there will be little difficulty in giving a satisfactory answer to the question which has sometimes been proposed—when did Jesus become Christ? when was lie anointed of God ? We have seen that the expression is a figurative or analogical one, and therefore we need not wonder that its references are various. The appointment of the Saviour, like all the other divine purposes, was, of course, from eternity. He was set up from everlasting' (Prov. viii. 23) ; he was fore-ordained before the foun dation of the world' (I Pet. i. 20). IIis qualifica tions, such of thcm as were conferred, were be stowed in, or during his incarnation, when God anointed him with the Holy Ghost and with power' (Acts x. 38). IIis commission may be considered as given him when called to enter on the functions of his office. He himself, after 'quoting, in the synagogue of Nazareth, in the com mencement of his ministiy, the passage from the prophecies of Isaiah in which his unction to the prophetical office is predicted, declared, 'This a'a, is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.' And in his resurrection and ascension, God, as the reward of his loving righteousness and hating iniquity, anointed him with the oil of gladness above his fellows' (Ps. xlv. 7), e., conferred on him a regal power, fruitful in blessings to himself and others, far superior to that which any king had ever possessed, making him, as the Apostle Peter expresses it, both Lord and Christ' (Acts ii. 36). As to his being accredited, every miraculous event performed in reference to him or by him may be viewed as included in this species of anointing— especially the visible descent of the Spirit on him in his baptism.
These statements, with regard to the import of the appellation the Christ,' shew us how we are to understand the statement of the Apostle John, Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ Li born of God' (1 John v. r), e., is a child of I God," born again,' ` a new creature ;' and the similar declaration of the Apostle Paul, ` No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, i. e., the Christ, the Messiah, ` but by the Holy Ghost' (1 Cor. xii. 3). It is plain that the proposition, Jesus is tbe Christ, when understood in the latitude of mean ing which we have shewn belongs to it, contains a complete summary of the truth respecting the divine method of salvation. To believe that prin ciple rightly understood is to believe the Gospel— the saving truth, by the faith of which a man is, and by the faith of which only a man can be, brought into the relation or formed to the character of a child of God, and though a man may, without divine influence, be brought to acknowledge that Jesus is the Lord," Messiah the Prince,' and even firmly to believe that these words embody a truth, yet no man can be brought really to believe and cordially to acknowledge the truth contained in these words, as we have attempted to unfold it, without a peculiar divine influence. That Jesus is 4XCa,, Xpurrds, is the testimony of God, the faith of which constitutes a Christian, 7.5 gp, the one thing to which the Spirit, the water, and the blood, unite in bearing witness (r John v. 6, 8, 9).—J. B.