The Anointed. This term is peculiarly, and by way of eminency, applied to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Mashah or Meshiah of the Father, full of grace and truth Hence, with pointed and personal distinction, God the Father is represented in the Scripture as saying: "I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people; I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him." (Psalms 89:19-20) And no less God the Holy Ghost, in his divine office and character, in the economy of human redemption, is represented as ordaining and anointing Christ, as Christ, to the great work of salvation; for both Christ and his church came under this 'Cilia-act of God the Spirit. For as Christ could not have been Christ without the unction of the Holy Ghost, so neither could the church have been the church, the spouse of Christ, the Lamb's wife, without sovereign agency. And it is very blessed to behold in the Scriptures of truth the testimony of JEHOVAH to this grand doctrine of Christ the Messiah, as the Christ of God. Hence we find Christ speaking as Glory-man Mediator."Come (Isaiah 48:16-17) ye near unto me, hear ye this: I have not spoken in secret; from the beginning, from the time that it was, thee am I; and now the Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me. Thus saith the Lord thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. I am the Lord thy God, which teacheth thee, to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go." In all these views, therefore, of Christ as Christ, we discover the work of the Father and the Holy Ghost. For one of the names of the Lord Jesus in the Old Testament is, the Messiah, that is the Anointed, as well as in the New; and as it is expressly said concerning him in the New Testament, when he appeared in the substance of our flesh, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth: with the Holy Ghost, Acts 10:38 - so evidently was he called the Messiah, and consequently answer that name was, and is, from everlasting, the anointed of God by the Holy Ghost, before he openly manifested himself under that character in our flesh. Such then was and is the glorious Messiah, the Christ of God; and such we accept and receive him to his body the church.
I might detain the reader were it not for enlarging this work beyond the limits I must observe, with offering several most interesting reflections, which arise out of this view of our now risen and exalted Messiah as the Messiah, the Christ of God; but for brevity's sake, I shall only beg to offer this one observation, namely, how sweet and strengthening a testimony such views of Jesus give to the faith of the church, when receiving Christ as the anointed of the Father and the Holy Ghost, Recollect in that blessed portion, just now quoted what the Mediator saith as Mediator"Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret; from the beginning, from the time that it was, there am I; and now the Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me." Was there ever anything more full in point and in proof of this blessed doctrine concerning the Messiah? What could the Lord Jesus by the spirit of prophecy mean, but that he would have his church, when receiving him, read his credentials, and mark well his high warrant and authority. There should be no shyness, but his people should come near unto him; for this was not a new thing, a new doctrine, it was from the beginning, yea, before all worlds Jesus was spoken of, in his mediatorial character, as set up from everlasting; neither was it whispered in secret, but openly, in the first revelations, the man-nature of the seed of the woman, the anointed of the Father and the Holy Ghost, was all along declared, that it was, and that I am, saith Christ. Blessed view of Jesus this, and precious to the strengthening of the faith of God's people. Methinks I would cherish it with all the warmth of affection; I would carry it about with me wherever l go: and beg that God the Holy Ghost would cause it to be my complete unceasing encouragement in all approaches to the throne of grace, and in all ordinances of worship. This is the warrant of a poor sinner's hope and confidence. Christ, as Christ, as the anointed, as the Messiah, is the sure appointment and ordinance of heaven. In him we draw nigh by divine authority. Christ is not only suited to carry on all the purposes of our great High Priest, but acts in that blessed office by divine authority, and by the validity of an oath. "The Lord sware and will not repent, thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedec." (Psalms 110:4) Hence, therefore, the Lord Jesus, in effect, speaks to every poor sinner as he did to the woman of Samaria"If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is, and by what authority he saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." (John 4:10) Such is the blessedness of receiving Christ, and living upon Christ, as the Christ, the Messiah, of God.