What does it mean to be anointed?

The word "anointing", as a symbolic word, carries a definite meaning. Three classes were anointed in Old Testament times — priests, prophets, kings. They were anointed by oil being poured on their heads. Though it was a rite in Old Testament times, it carried a definite result. This is plainly shown in 1 Samuel 16:13: "Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward." Scripture links anointing with oil to the giving of the Spirit. With the priest it was to enable him to take the priestly position and service; with the prophet, the prophetic position and service; with the king, the kingly position and service.

Anointed with oil pictures the day when our Lord was baptised and stepped into public service for God and man. "And behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him" (Matthew 3:16). The Hebrew word Messiah, and its Greek equivalent Christ, means the Anointed One. "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him" (Acts 10:38).

Weigh the deeply instructive picture of Leviticus 8. Aaron alone is anointed first without blood (v. 12); when his sons come into question, he is with them, and then the blood of consecration is put on him and them (vv. 23, 24), as the righteous ground for their being anointed with him (v. 30). So Jesus alone could be and was anointed — and as man, note — without blood being shed. The Holy One of God, He needed no offering to receive the Holy Spirit in this way. But if He would have us enjoying the fellowship of that anointing from on high, blood there had to be, and there was.

The precious ointment on the Head ran down to the skirts of His garments (Psalm 133:2), and so His followers were anointed by God. The effect of the anointing is to give intelligence (1 Corinthians 2:12; 1 John 2:20, 27) and power (Acts 10:38). The very name God has allowed to be attached to believers — that of Christians — shows this character of the Holy Spirit. The meaning of "Christ" is "the Anointed One", and so the meaning of "Christians" is "anointed ones".

In the passage already quoted (1 John 2:27) the connection between the anointing and the understanding of the anointed one is very marked: "the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you." Man, as man, cannot teach his fellow the things of God. Man, as a vessel of the Holy Spirit, can be used as a gracious channel, but the source of the teaching is always and only the Holy Spirit.

Anointing with oil for consecration to office is not now required of believers, for they are anointed with the Holy Spirit, and are also priests to God. John reminds even the babes in Christ that they have an anointing from the Holy One, and the anointing abides in them (1 John 2:20, 27). So, as in the Old Testament the kings, prophets and priests were anointed as set apart for God, the Christian is by the Holy Spirit sanctified for God, both in his position and in his service.

For Christ, it was His official designation for the place to which God had appointed Him, Priest and King, and His qualification in power for that place. For the saint, it is the clear designation, in the gift of the Spirit, that he belongs to God, and a qualification to live here separated from all evil. By the fact of my anointing I am set apart to God. I am His for the service to which He has called me. The anointing oil is on me, and it stays. Nor is this a mere past, formal act, but a living Person who guides, teaches and empowers me for everything I meet. Above all, the Holy One teaches me to abide in Christ.