Could Jesus be called Christ?
The answer to this question is Yes, Jesus may
be called Christ, in the sense the writers of the New Testament gave to this
title, as I'll explain soon, not in the sense later
interpretation and tradition have given to this title.
Christ is an important name, or title; it
gives the name to Christianity. The noun Christ occurs 531 times in the New
Testament, 383 of them in Paul's letters. Christ is a title, which has become a
name for Jesus. Christ means anointed, equivalent to the Hebrew word Messiah.
Some readers of this page "Christianity..."
have asked why I almost never use the word Christ in reference to Jesus. The
answer is simple; Christ is a word charged with different meanings and
connotations, and I do not want the reader to become confused.
Christ as Messiah
The Jews at the time of Jesus were
expecting a temporal, political messiah, who would give
I have a document in which I tried to show
the problems with the doctrine of redemption from sin; you may see it by
clicking here. So, I am not ready to call Jesus the Christ or the Messiah with this
connotation.
Christ as the glorified Jesus
When the title Christ is used to mean that
Jesus was glorified by his resurrection, I do agree with the title Christ applied
to Jesus. In fact, the only Jesus who now exists is the glorified Jesus.
But we would be deviating from the New
Testament if by that title, Christ, we mean that he is God, or equal to God.
Speaking about Jesus, the Christ, the New Testament says that the Son
himself, will also be subject to him (God), that God may be all in all (1
Corinthians 15:28). If Jesus is equal to God, he wouldn't have to subject
himself to anybody because he is God himself.
What glorification means
More in the book
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