22 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist. (1 John 2:22)
John, writing several decades after the resurrection of Jesus, writes to warn some of Jesus’ disciples that some are teaching a Jesus who is not the Christ. History can make language like this fuzzy. What was a Christ and what did a Christ do? Lastly, why is it important, even critical, that Jesus be known as THE Christ?
The word ‘Christ’, found throughout the NT, is a translation of the word Messiah – or Mashiach in Hebrew. A messiah is someone who was appointed for a sacred task. In the ancient world, the process of appointing someone involved a ceremony of anointing with oil. A priest was anointed, kings were anointed, and prophets were anointed. It just meant they were being appointed for a sacred task.
Just to the time of Jesus, many Jewish writers began to ponder certain predictions from the prophets and anticipate one of David’s descendants who would be uniquely appointed by God to rule on the throne of his father, David. He wasn’t A Christ. He was THE Christ. The Christ was the coming king of Israel – the One who would reign forever. You can see the presence of this expectation when Gabriel visited Mary.
32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and He will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; His kingdom will never end.” (Lk 1:32–33)
As the message spread, more and more Gentiles became disciples. Soon, they would outnumber the Jewish leaders that had pioneered the movement to take the Gospel to the nations. John’s concern in the letter mentioned above is that a situation, much like our own today, had developed. Some of the non-Jewish disciples began to question the need to preach Jesus as the Christ – that is, as the coming King of Israel. The Temple’s destruction had likely raised questions over the relevance of the Jewish narrative to the message of Jesus. In John’s mind, this was not only incorrect. It would also be a defining dynamic in the period just before the Lord’s return (See I John 2:18).
This Christmas is a wonderful time to bring back to mind that the Jesus preached by the apostles was Jesus the Christ – the coming king of Israel. Just as there is no accurate preaching of Jesus unless He is the Christ. So, there is no true celebration of what Mary and the wise men celebrated unless we celebrate the birth of One who will soon rule over the nations from Jerusalem on the throne of His father David. The result, as the angels told the shepherds, will be peace, everlasting peace, on earth.
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