IS HE JESUS OR IS HE CHRIST?
Jesus Christ. What does that mean? Is that His name? Is that His title? Is Christ His last name and Jesus His first name? Is He Jesus or is He Christ? And why do we sometimes say Jesus and sometimes say Christ? What is the difference?
These are important questions because they speak to the identity of our Lord and Savior. We learn more about who He is by considering questions such as these, and anything that helps us to learn about Jesus is a good thing.
First, it should be recognized that “Jesus” is His name. The emphasis here is on the fact that He lived a human life on this earth. Therefore, He had a human name. The name Jesus was highly significant in His case because it means Savior (Matt. 1:21).
But the name itself, regardless of its meaning, was a very common name during the time that Jesus lived. So while He was named Jesus because He is the Savior, it was generally “just another name” because He was a real human being. Human beings have human names.
The word “Christ” is not a name, it is a title. So, no, Christ is not His last name. It is His title. That is why, in the Bible, you will see Him being called both Jesus Christ and Christ Jesus. Christ means “anointed one,” and it speaks of His divinity. It speaks of His divine mission into the world, and the fact that He alone glorified God and pleased God with the way that He lived in perfection here on this earth.
The Bible writers tie the two words together because of their mutual importance. The New Testament opens with a reference to “Jesus Christ” (Matthew 1:1). The Gospel of John reveals, “These things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (John 20:31). So being “Christ” is equivalent to being the “Son of God,” and “Jesus” is Him.
One way to think of it is to see that Jesus means He is human, Christ means He is God. The God-Man. The apostle Paul states that “there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). There has never been anyone like Him.
He was named Jesus by God and He was anointed Christ by God. Peter preached, “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). Calling Him Jesus is respectful and it is right. There is nothing disrespectful about calling our Lord by His human name. It serves as a constant reminder of and celebration of the fact that God became flesh and lived among us in order to die on the cross for our sins. What theologians call the “incarnation” happened because God became human. A human named Jesus.
Calling Him Christ reminds us that He is what the entire universe is all about. Some claim that one solitary man cannot be the adequate explanation for the existence of the universe. But they fail to understand the importance and significance of this “one solitary man.” This is the God who created the universe. God the Father created the world through Jesus Christ (John 1:1-3; Hebrews 1:10; Genesis 1:1; Colossians 1:16).
Christ is Savior, Lord, King, and the one who has been anointed by God to be the “radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature” (Hebrews 1:3). In Christ, we have a Savior who brings about redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our sins (Ephesians 1:7). He is both Jesus and Christ. He is Jesus Christ. He is Christ Jesus. He is God in human form. He is the God-Man.
He was born of a virgin in Bethlehem’s manger and He is also the eternal I AM—the Lord God Jehovah. This is the greatest and most significant person who ever lived. Like the Roman soldier said as Jesus died, “Surely this man was the Son of God” (Matthew 27:54).
Bryan Dewayne Dunaway
