The Anointed
Summary
The word “Christ” means “the Anointed One.” This chapter traces how the ancient Scriptures — particularly Daniel’s prophecy of the 70 weeks — pointed to a specific moment when the Spirit would rest on Jesus at his baptism, anointing him as the promised Messiah. It was no ordinary anointing but the full, unmeasured gift of the Spirit, fulfilling Isaiah’s portrait of the servant of Yahweh.
John the Baptist prepared the way, and then Jesus came to be baptised in the Jordan. As he came up from the water, the Holy Spirit descended on him in the form of a dove, and a voice from heaven declared: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:16–17)[1] This was the moment of anointing — the precise fulfilment of Daniel's prophecy: "to anoint the Most Holy." (Daniel 9:24)[2]
Peter later identified this event directly: "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him." (Acts 10:38)[3] The anointing was not symbolic — it equipped Jesus for his entire ministry of teaching, healing, and ultimately his sacrificial death.
The sacred anointing oil of the tabernacle — poured on the high priest and the holy vessels — had always pointed toward this greater reality. But where the oil was applied in limited measure to types and shadows, Christ received the Spirit without measure: "For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure." (John 3:34)[4]
Isaiah had foreseen all this centuries earlier. The servant of Yahweh would say: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor." (Isaiah 61:1)[5] Matthew records the explicit fulfilment of Isaiah 42 in Jesus' ministry: "Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased; I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will declare justice to the Gentiles." (Matthew 12:18)[6]
Yahweh's word to his anointed servant was also a word of commissioning for all nations: "I, Yahweh, have called you in righteousness... I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles." (Isaiah 42:6)[7] The anointing of Jesus at the Jordan was therefore not a private event — it was the inauguration of a mission that would reach to the ends of the earth.