Theological Term of the Week: Messiah

Messiah
The English rendering of the Hebrew word mashiach, which means “anointed one.” The Old Testament predicted a coming deliverer chosen by God to redeem Israel, and the Jews called this deliverer the Messiah. The Hebrew word for Messiah comes into the Greek as christos, from which we get the English word Christ. 

• In scripture:

  One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). (John 1:40–41 ESV)

  The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” [26] Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” 

  (John 4:25–26 ESV)
  

• From the IVP Bible Background Commentary by Craig S. Keener:

  Messiah. The rendering of a Hebrew term meaning “anointed one,” equivalent to the original sense of the Greek term translated “Christ.” In the Old Testament, different kinds of people were anointed, and some of the Dead Sea Scrolls mention two main anointed ones in the end time, a king and a priest. But the common expectation reflected in the biblical Psalms and Prophets was that one of David’s royal descendants would take the throne again when God reestablished his kingdom for Israel. Many and probably most Jewish people in Palestine believed that God would somehow have to intervene to put down roman rule so the Messiah’s kingdom could be secure; many seem to have thought this intervention would be accomplished through force of arms. Various messianic figures arose in first-century Palestine, expecting a miraculous intervention from God; all were crushed by the Romans. (Jesus was the only one claimed to have been resurrected; he was also one of the only messiahs claiming Davidic descent, proof of which would be more difficult for any claimants arising after A.D. 70.)

Learn more:

1. Compelling Truth: What does Messiah mean? What does Christ mean? Is Jesus the Messiah?
2. Ligonier Ministries: Jesus the Messiah, The Messiah in Prophecy
3. Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology: Messiah
4. Simply Put: Messiah/Christ (audio and transcript)
5. The Bible Project: The Messiah (video)

Related terms: 

• ascension of Jesus
• baptism of Jesus
• incarnation
• offices of Christ
• resurrecton of Jesus
• temptation of Jesus
• Transfiguration
• triumphal entry

Filed under Person, Work, and Teaching of Christ

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16 Truths You Should Know: God Saves

The last post in this series told the story of the fall of humankind. Adam, the very first human, disobeyed God, and as a result, every human after him (including my two-year-old granddaughter) is born a sinner. The sin we inherit from Adam has two aspects: We share in his guilt, and we are born with an inner corruption that causes us to disobey God like he did. The bottom line—and the main point of the previous post—is that we are born estranged from God and it only goes downhill from there as we live out our lives in rebellion against him. 

But thankfully, this is not where the story ends. 

Come to think of it, it’s not where the story begins, either, and that’s a good thing, too. Way back in eternity past—before the fall of Adam, even before creation—God had a plan to create the universe and unfold it’s history to accomplish his ultimate purpose, which is to reveal his own glory in it. So he works in everything that happens, including the fall of Adam, to accomplish this goal.

God planned for the bad news that we are guilty and alienated from him to be the backdrop for what J. I. Packer calls his “redemptive project”1—saving sinful people by removing their guilt and reconciling them to himself, all “to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14). 

The Plan to Save

We see the blueprint for God’s redemptive project in Ephesians 1. It starts like this:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons … . (Ephesians 1:3-5 ESV)

Before creation, the Father chose people from among Adam’s guilty and alienated descendants. He intended for these sinful people to become his own righteous adopted children, and to that end, he orchestrated his plan of redemption. 

The Son has role in the redemptive project, too. 

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses … . (Ephesians 1:7 ESV)

He willingly came into the world, sent by his Father, to die on behalf of the guilty sinners his Father planned to save. Because he died for them, their sins can be forgiven and their guilt removed. 

And the Spirit?

… you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14 ESV)

The Spirit’s job is to apply the Son’s redeeming work to the children God has chosen, and then keep them faithful until the end when they receive their final inheritance.

As you can see, each member of the Trinity has a role in God’s plan to save. There is a “division of labor”² (as Louis Berkhof calls it) in God’s redemptive work. In later posts, we’ll discuss in more detail the work of each person, but for now, if we bring in what’s taught in other texts of scripture, we can summarize the division of labor in salvation like this: The Father chooses and sends and adopts; the Son comes and redeems and intercedes; the Spirit applies and recreates and keeps. Or to put it another way, the Father gave the Son a people to redeem, the Son died to redeem them, and the Holy Spirit applies the benefits of Christ’s redemption to his people, and preserves them to the end. 

Since God always accomplishes what he plans to do, all God’s people will be saved for sure through the work of our triune God. And from start to finish, salvation is God’s work, so he receives all the glory for it. 

1Concise Theology by J. I. Packer, page 38.
2Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhoff, page 266. 

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Previous posts in this series:

1. 16 Truths You Should Know: God Has Spoken
2. 16 Truths You Should Know: God Is One and God Is Three
3. 16 Truths You Should Know: God Is Who He Is
4. 16 Truths You Should Know: God Has a Plan
5. 16 Truths You Should Know: God Created the Universe
6. 16 Truths You Should Know: We Are Made in God’s Image
7. 16 Truths You Should Know: We Are All Sinners 

Sunday's Hymn: I Will Sing the Wondrous Story

I’ve sung these words to all three of these tunes. This hymn is associated with Ira Sankey because he published it in his Sacred Songs and Solos. He did not, however, write it.

I will sing the wondrous story
Of the Christ who died for me,
How he left the realms of glory
For the cross on Calvary.

Yes, I’ll sing the wondrous story
Of the Christ who died for me,
Sing it with the saints in glory,
Gathered by the crystal sea.

I was lost: but Jesus found me,
Found the sheep that went astray,
Raised me up and gently led me
Back into the narrow way.

Faint was I, and fears possessed me,
Bruised was I from many a fall;
Hope was gone, and shame distressed me:
But his love has pardoned all.

Days of darkness still may meet me,
Sorrow’s path I oft may tread;
But his presence still is with me,
By his guiding hand I’m led.

He will keep me till the river
Rolls its waters at my feet:
Then he’ll bear me safely over,
Made by grace for glory meet.

—Fran­cis H. Row­ley

Other hymns, worship songs, or quotes for this Sunday:

• Saved by Grace at The Happy Wonderer
• Easter Has Implications for Our Benefit at The Outspoken Tulip