What does "Christ" mean?

Christ - The anointed

Chris’ti an - derivative of Christ (one like the anointed)

ὁ χριστός. An official title of the Lord Jesus, which became used as a name. In John 1:41; John 4:25 this title is linked with the Messiah of the O.T. The Jews and Samaritans were expecting THE MESSIAH, "which is called Christ." We find the title 'Messiah' in Dan. 9:25-26 in the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. The Hebrew word is mashiach and signifies 'anointed.' This term is employed as to the Lord Jesus in Ps. 2:2: the rulers set themselves against Jehovah and His 'Anointed.' The same word is used in reference to the high priest and the king as God's anointed; but the Lord Jesus is emphatically 'the Anointed,' this being the signification of the Word 'the Christ' which should be read in many places in the N.T. where the A.V. simply has 'Christ.' In the Gospels it is nearly always 'the Christ,' and often in the Epistles, except where it is Jesus Christ, or Christ Jesus which has more the character of a name. It refers to the Lord as Man, being anointed with the Holy Ghost.

It might be mentioned here that the title “Christ” is the Greek rendering of the Hebrew word “Messiah.” The title in both languages means “The Anointed.” In the Old Testament we get three classes of persons anointed: the king for the kingly office; the priest for the priestly office; and the prophet for the prophetic office. The Lord was THE Anointed, to carry out the will of God, anointed to be the Saviour, the Revealer of the Father, THE Prophet; THE Priest; THE King; the Son of Man, with worldwide dominion; the Messiah, the King of the Jews; the King of kings, and Lord of lords, not a King among kings, inter alia, but a King OF kings. All that the world will ever know of blessing flows from THE Anointed One. The precious ointment was poured upon Aaron’s head, ran down to his beard, and descended to the skirts of his garments (Ps. 133:2), so all blessing flows from the position that our Lord has got as THE Messiah or Christ, THE Anointed. How securely the glory of God lies in those pierced hands.

The title, “Christ, the Lord,” occurs only once, and is found in Luke 2:2, and stands for “Jehovah’s Anointed.”

a) the Christ, the anointed one- that is what Christ means. As we look through the Old Testament of the Scriptures we find there examples of 3 different classes of persons that God instructed should be anointed. And Christ is the perfect example of each class, the fulfillment, the culmination of each.

The somewhat strangely sounding expression used by us, "The Christ," instead of "Christ," has been purposely chosen, in order to mark the distinction between the office and the name of the Lord. "Christ" has become in the parlance of the present day a simple name; in earlier days this was not the case. "Christ" (Greek), or "Messiah" (Hebrew), means "the Anointed," who, according to the promise of God, was expected. This word therefore expresses more than merely the name of a person, although this use of it had already appeared at the time the scriptures of the New Testament were written; and since, in our opinion, the designation of the office and the name should not be confounded, in order to retain the force of the word, we have written "Christ" when it is used as a proper name, and "the Christ" when it designates the office of the Messiah, the Anointed. In the Greek, the article ὁ marks the distinction.

"Christ" is an official title. He is God's anointed Man. As such He shall give effect to the will of God by so establishing His righteousness that blessing might freely flow to those who deserve only eternal judgment. The gospel then concerns "His Son Jesus Christ our Lord."

Again the name "Christ," which every one knows, is but the Greek form of the Hebrew "Messiah," speaks of Him as the One anointed of God to be the Deliverer in three necessary ways: a Prophet to bring out of error; a Priest to open the way to God; a King to govern for God.

This is a title of our Lord, meaning the Anointed. Messiah (Hebrew) and Christ (Greek), both meaning Anointed, are interchangeable words, We read,

The actual word, Messiah, occurs only twice in the Old Testament (Dan. 9:25-26), and only twice in the New Testament (John 1:41; 4:25). In the Old Testament there were three classes of persons anointed on their induction to office—priests, prophets, kings. The word, anointed, referring to individuals, occurs 43 times in the Old Testament. Seeing that practically in every case the word applies to priests, prophets and kings, it is translated by the word, anointed, for the word, Messiah or Christ, can only refer to our Lord. At the same time the anointings of priests, prophets and kings, no doubt were typical of our Lord, who sustains all these three offices. He is God’s Priest, our Great High Priest (Heb. 3:1); He is God’s Prophet, for Deuteronomy 18:18 tells of God promising that He would raise up a Prophet like unto Moses, but whose words should not fall to the ground; and lastly He is God’s King, for we read in Psalm 2:6, how the day will come when our Lord shall sit as King upon the holy hill of Zion. We have our Lord presented prophetically as King and Priest upon His throne in the following Scripture,

16 Matt. 1:21. The word Christ or Messiah means anointed, and Jesus or Joshua, Jehovah or Jah the Saviour.

The Precious Name of Jesus tells us of the lowly, humble Man on earth: this is the Name of the Babe in the manager: in weakness and rejection. But in this Epistle it is also the Name that is exalted to the highest place of honour: it is at the Name of "JESUS" that every knee shall bow. The Name, or Title, "Christ," means "The Anointed One:" it is the Greek for the Hebrew title, "Messiah." It is His official Title or Name. It tells of His exaltation, as well as of His office. We have already briefly pondered our Lord's Names in this Epistle: so will not speak of them here: but we may notice that three times we find His Names, "JESUS CHRIST," in this order: and alone, without His Title of Lord.