Christ is the official, Jesus the personal name of our Lord. It is from the Greek word Christos, which signifies "anointed," corresponding to the word Messiah in the Hebrew. He is called the Anointed in allusion to the custom of anointing with oil such as were set apart to a sacred or regal office, because by the Spirit He was anointed to the threefold office of prophet, priest, and king.
The word "Jesus" is derived from a Hebrew word signifying "to save," or "sent to save" (Matt. 1:21; Lk. 2:11, 21). The word "Joshua" has the same meaning, and is a very common name among the Hebrews, and should have been used in Acts 7:45 and Heb. 4:8 instead of "Jesus."
Jesus the Christ is a descriptive phrase, like John the Baptist (Mk. 14:61; John 1:41). The word "Jesus" is almost always used alone in the Gospels, while, in the Acts and Epistles, "Jesus Christ," or "Lord Jesus Christ," i? the prevailing expression.
The first promise of the Messiah was given in Gen. 3:IS. The Son of God is "the seed of the woman." The devil and his servants represent the serpent and his seed. The temptations, sufferings, and ignominious death of Christ, are significantly described by the bruising of the heel; while the complete victory which our Redeemer has Himself achieved over sin and death, and which His grace enables the believer also to obtain, and the still more perfect and universal triumph which He will finally accomplish, are all strikingly illustrated by the bruising or crushing of the serpent's head.
The books of heathen mythology furnish curious allusions to this passage of the Bible. In one of them Thor is presented as the eldest son of Odin, a middle divinity, a mediator between God and man, who bruised the head of the serpent and slew him. And in one of the oldest pagodas of India are found two sculptured figures, representing two incarnations of one of their supreme divinities, the first as bitten by a serpent, and the second to crush him.
The promise thus given when man fell was supplemented by many types and symbols-in poetry and prose, in prophecy and history; so the Jews had before them in increasing prominence and clearness the character and life and-death of the promised Messiah, and yet, as a nation, they grossly misapprehended His character and the purpose of His mission. They were accustomed to regard His coming as the grand era in the annals of the world, for they spoke of the two great ages of history, the one as preceding and the other as following this wonderful event; but they perverted the spiritual character of the Messiah and His kingdom into that of a temporal deliverer and ruler. Or, rather, they refused to see a description of Him as the Sufferer and sin-bearer in Isa. 53, Ps. 22, and typified in the sacrifices. They only looked for His kingdom, and refused the atonement sufferings which were to precede the kingdom.-[Ed.
We find that about the time of the Messiah's appearance Simeon, Anna, and others of like faith, were eagerly expecting the promised salvation (Lk. 2:25-38).
At the appointed time the Redeemer of the world appeared. He was born in the year of the city of Rome 749 -1:e., 4 years before the beginning of our era-at Bethlehem, in Judaea, of the Virgin Mary, who was espoused to Joseph; and through them He derived his descent from David, according to prophecy (Ps. 89:3,4 and 110:1). Com. Acts 2:25,36; Isa. 11:1-10; Jer. 23:5, 6; Ezek. 34:23, 24; 37:24, 25; John 7:42.
The story of Christ's life is told with so much simplicity, completeness, and sweetness in the Gospels, and is at the same time so familiar to every Bible-reader, that it is not possible or necessary to give even an outline of it here. In one sentence, Jesus Christ was the incarnate God, whose coming was the fulfilment of prophecy; whose life was the exemplification of absolute sinlessness; whose death was the result of man's malice, and yet the execution of God's design and the atonement for the sins of the world; whose resurrection was the crowning proof of His divinity:whose ascension was a return to His abode, where He ever liveth to make intercession for us. To prove His character we have the unanimous testimony of eighteen centuries. "The person of Christ is the miracle of history."
We claim for Him perfect humanity and perfect divinity. He was not only the Son of Man, but the Son of God in one undivided person. The term "Son of Man," which Christ applies to Himself about eighty times in the Gospels, places Him with other men as partaking of their /nature and constitution, and at the same time above all ' other men as the absolute and perfect Man, the representative Head of the race, the second Adam (Rom. 5:12; 1 Cor. 15:20-22). While great men are limited by national ties, Christ is the King of men, who draws all to Him; He is the universal, absolute Man, elevated above the limitations of race and nationality. And yet He is most intensely human. The joys and sorrows of our common life are met by His deep and tender sympathy. All love Him who know Him. His foes are the cruel, the licentious, and the malicious.
The records of the Evangelists are not elaborate, artistic pages, with many erasures as if the writers had toiled after consistency. They are simple, straightforward, guileless testimonies; and yet the impression they leave upon the attentive reader is that in Jesus Christ-the plant of Humanity bore its rarest flower, the tree of Life its most precious fruit.
It will be granted that the question of the justice of this claim turns upon His perfect sinlessness. Some have dared to say that while in the Gospels no sinful acts are recorded, there may have been sins which are unrecorded. But without fear He challenged His foes to convict Him of sin (John 8:46). He was the only man could make such a challenge. Christ's sinlessness is confirmed by His own solemn testimony, the whole course of His life, and the very purpose for which He appeared. Self-deception in this case would border on madness, falsehood would overthrow the whole moral foundation of Christ's character. Hypocrites do not maintain themselves under such a strain.
But besides being sinless, He was perfectly holy. He did not simply resist sin; He blended and exercised actively all virtues. The grandeur of His character removes Him at once from all the sordidness, pettiness, and sin-fulness of our every-day life. His memory comes to us with the refreshment of the cooling breeze on a summer's day. We can supplicate His help because we have seen Him tried and triumphant, and we know His strength is great. All human goodness loses on closer inspection, but Christ's character grows more pure, sacred, and lovely the better we know Him.
But Jesus was likewise the Son of God and so He is usually called by the apostles. The perfection of His humanity is matched by the perfection of His divinity. His Godhead comes out in many ways. He exercises a supernatural control over Nature. The waves sink at His command, the fig tree withers away, the water turns into wine. By His touch or word, without a prayer or any recognition of superior power, the lepers are cleansed, the blind see, and the lame walk. Higher yet does Christ go :He forgives sins-not with the ostentation of a presuming charlatan, but simply, authoritatively, gently. He takes from the sinner his damning load by the same action which brings back health. He likewise intercedes with the Father for men. He claims equality and eternity with God. Twice God proclaims Him as His Son. Jesus of Nazareth lives as the express image of the Father, conquers the grave, rises from the dead, and ascends to take His place as God, blessed for ever.
"Behold the God-Man!" cries the Church; and this is the exultant exclamation of the soul left to its deepest instincts and noblest aspirations, the soul which was originally made for Christ, and finds in Him the solution of all moral problems, the satisfaction of all its wants, the unfailing fountain of everlasting life and peace.
From "Schaff’s Bible Dictionary."