One Lord Jesus CHRIST

This week we will finish looking at the Nicene Creed line, which says, “And in one Lord Jesus Christ.” We have seen the exclusiveness that there is only one way of Salvation. We have seen the title Lord given to Jesus and the prophetic name of Jesus as the savior of our sins. This week we look at the name Christ. Christ is not Jesus’s last name but speaks again of who Jesus is. Like the name Jesus, it is not happenstance that has made this name so familiar. Christ comes from the Greek word, Christos, which is a translation of the Hebrew word for Messiah (Which means anointed one). The term appears over 500 times in the New Testament. The Jews were waiting for the Messiah, the one to come who was promised in the Old Testament. Right from the very beginning, God promised that one was to come who would crush the head of the Serpent (Gen 3:15). The Messiah was the one to come who would be the prophet that Moses spoke of (Deut 18:15), the Priest after the order of Melchizedek (Ps 110:4), and the King who would rule forever, out of the stump of Jesse (Is 11:1, 10). That is why Matthew 1:1 begins with, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ [Messiah], the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Following the genealogy, Matthew writes, “and Jacob, the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.”

When Jesus meets the woman at the well in John 4, he explains that the correct worship is in Spirit and Truth. Jesus explains that the Jews worship what they know, and the Samaritans worship what they do not know. The woman’s response is surprising, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things” (John 4:25). She responds, explaining that she knows that Messiah is coming. Even a woman on the outcasts of society knows about the Messiah. She does worship what she knows; the Christ is coming. Jesus’ response is, “I who speak to you am he.” Jesus is the long-anticipated messiah promised after the fall and throughout the old testament. This is what makes Peters statement so important in the Gospels when Peter says, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Peter knows who Jesus is, the long-awaited messiah, who will save his people. Hence Jesus, when he walks with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, can make the statement, “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:26-27). As we begin to think and consider Jesus’ incarnation and coming to dwell on the earth by taking on flesh, let us think about how Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah who is to be found in all the Scriptures.