Titles for Jesus In the Gospels – Christ

In the Gospels, there are many titles for Jesus. However, there are three main titles – Son of God, Christ (Messiah), and Son of Man. Last time I looked at “Son of God” so this week we will look at the title “Christ” (or Messiah).

Jesus is referred to as “Christ” even more often than as the Son of God. The word Christ occurs 54 times in the Gospels, almost always in reference to Jesus or to the Old Testament promise that the Christ would come. The word Christ appears 16 times in Matthew, 7 in Mark, 12 in Luke, and 19 in John.

The word Christ (‘christos’ in Greek or ‘meshiach’ in Hebrew) literally means ‘anointed.’ Based on Old Testament uses, an expectation had grown that a Son of David would arise, and this son/seed of David would be anointed by the Spirit of the Lord to bring salvation and deliverance to God’s people.

The term is very important for the Gospel writers, and is even used in the opening verse of both Matthew and Mark.

A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham:  Matthew 1:1

The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  Mark 1:1

In the remainder of the New Testament, this term is so popular in reference to Jesus that it almost became part of His Name! Jesus the Christ almost took on the air of the full name Jesus Christ. However, it is a title – Jesus the Christ.

This was the title that was most commonly talked about among the people of Israel. They were looking for the long-awaited Son of David – the Christ. Interestingly, however, this was not the favorite designation Jesus had for Himself! This belongs to the title of Son of Man – which I will discuss next week.

It seems that even though this was the most popular designation for the long-awaited Promised Seed, the Son of David, Who would come to rescue the people, Jesus avoided using it because of many popular misconceptions. Many thought of the Christ in political and military terms – and this was NOT what Jesus had come to fulfill. Therefore, although many used this term to refer to Jesus, He very rarely did so Himself.

But we know that Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed One, Who came to work salvation for us! This lies at the heart of the Gospel story.

In Christ,

Bret