Jesus is the Christ of God, the hope of Israel and all the earth. The Jews had dreamed that God would send them a leader who would bring them into a golden age of security, prosperity, and justice, with power over all nations. This great leader, like their other kings, priests, and prophets, would be set apart for his work by the pouring of God’s holy oil upon his head. The “anointed leader,” the “one poured upon,” was called in Hebrew “‘the Messiah” and in Greek “the Christ.” To call Jesus the Christ is to claim that he fulfilled God’s promises of a Messiah for Israel, promises which are recorded in the Old Testament. I believe that Jesus was foreshadowed by the biblical prophets, priests, and kings, but that he was very much more than any or all of them. He set those ancient themes in a higher key. Jesus spent much of his teaching time trying to lift the eyes of his followers beyond the horizon of their own nation, its material prosperity, and political power. He was more the Christ of God’s dreams than the Messiah of Jewish hopes. The Jewish notion of Christ was far too small for the scope of God’: plans. Jesus had been sent by God and empowered by the Spirit of God. He would deliver all people who would receive him as their Savior. He was establishing a kingdom, one that would spread throughout the world. He would bring real peace, security, and justice by changing men’s inner lives, but not by using external force. His new order would offer far greater blessings than the old arrangement with Israel. Jesus resolved to win men’s hearts by suffering for them and serving them, not by military conquest. God gave him his entire approval as his Christ and raised him from the dead with all power on earth and in heaven. Right now, in God’s own realm, Jesus is Christ, the King. He is the kingdom-center of those who acknowledge him, the judge of all men. His will overrules even those who reject him.
When I call Jesus “Christ,” I declare that he is no ordinary man. I believe that he is God’s special agent to bring to pass God’: plans for his world. I believe that Jesus knows the secret counsels of God, that he is closer to the mind of the Almighty than anyone else has ever been. If Jesus is Christ, his claim upon me is God’s own claim, the highest claim of all, second to no other. If I utterly disown him, I disqualify myself from my God-given destiny in this world and consign myself to the cosmic garbage dump, a self-made exile from the kingdom of God. If Jesus is the Christ of God, he is the Christ for God’s whole world. Notice that “Christ” is the Greek word for a Hebrew idea. All that God had offered to the Hebrews, and more, God now offers also to the Greeks and to all men. The Christ commands, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation.”
Books by Dr. John A. Ross
