BIBLICAL BRIEFS 97
In order to understand the significance, we first have to draw the distinction between ‘Jesus’ and ‘Christ’. Jesus is the Son of God, and according to his name in Hebrew he is the Saviour and Redeemer. The word ‘Christ’ in Hebrew means ‘Messiah’ and in Greek ‘Anointed’. In Dan. 9:25 it is prophesied that the (new) Jerusalem, or the Bride of Christ (Rev. 21:2), “will be built up unto one Anointed”. Jesus is multiplied by the Christ. The Head, Jesus, made his appearance almost two thousand years ago. Since Pentecost (Acts 2) the Body is being born. It remains one Christ (Jesus the Head, plus the rest of the Anointed Body, the Bride), as Paul spells out in Eph. 1: 22-23 (Weymouth Translation): “God has put all things under His feet, and has appointed Him universal and supreme Head of the Church, which is His Body, the completeness of Him who everywhere fills the universe with Himself.” The Body of Christ is the completeness of the Christ of God (Luke 9:20). Two thousand years ago, the revelation of the Head was there (1Cor. 11: 3; Eph. 1:10 & 22; 4:15; 5:23; Col. 1:18; 2:20 & 19), but the Body of that Head has evolved through all ages until one day, “we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). The Bride is therefore part of the anointed Christ, with Jesus as Head! 1Cor. 12:12 clearly spells it out: “For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.” When speaking of ‘Jesus Christ’, it refers to the Saviour or Redeemer, the Head. But when Paul uses the phrase ‘Christ Jesus’, Christ stands out (it occurs a total of 71 times, from Acts to Revelation). Your identity in Christ is a prerequisite for spiritual wholeness and emerging spiritual adulthood and authority. Remember the apt description of John Eldridge in his book: Waking the Dead: “Sin is a mistaken identity.” Your identity in Christ is the centre of the new person from which you now learn to live – “so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” (2Cor 4:10). We are growing in the knowledge that Rev. 11:15 prophesies: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord (Jesus) and of His Christ …”!
Dr Tom Gouws
