Sometimes I think that we speak of Jesus Christ – Christ being Jesus’ last name. Rather we need to remind ourselves that the word “Christ” means “Anointed One” or “Messiah.” It is a title that points to an experience. It was not sufficient that Jesus be sent from heaven to earth with a title. He had to receive the anointing in an experience to accomplish what the Father desired. It was the anointing of the Holy Spirit that stood him in good stead in the 40 days in the desert and the commencement of his ministry and indeed right through to its fulfilment.
The word ‘anointing’ means “to smear.” The Holy Spirit is the oil of God that was smeared all over Jesus at His water baptism (see Luke 3:21-22). The name Jesus Christ implies that Jesus is the deliverer, the One smeared with the Holy Spirit.
But there is another spirit that works to ambush the Church in every age. This power was identified by the apostle John when he said, “Even now many antichrists have come” (1 John 2:18). The nature of the antichrist spirit is found in its name: anti, “against”; Christ, “Anointed One.”
Jesus lived His earthly life with human limitations. He laid His divinity aside (see Phil. 2:5-7) as He sought to fulfil the assignment given to Him by the Father: to live life as a man without sin, and then die in the place of mankind for sin. This would be essential in His plan to redeem mankind. The sacrifice that could atone for sin had to be a lamb (powerless), and had to be spotless (without sin).
The anointing Jesus received was the equipment necessary, given by the Father, to make it possible for Him to live beyond human limitations. For He was not only to redeem man, He was to reveal the Father. In doing so, He was to unveil the Father’s realm called heaven. That would include doing supernatural things. The anointing is what linked Jesus, the man, to the divine, enabling Him to destroy the works of the devil. These miraculous ways helped to set something in motion that mankind could inherit once we were redeemed. Heaven—that supernatural realm—was to become mankind’s daily bread.
Its “present tense” existence was explained in Jesus’ statement, “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” That means heaven is not just our eternal destination, but also is a present reality, and it’s within arm’s reach.
Adapted excerpt from When Heaven Invades Earth by Bill Johnson ch 7