Good news. The Gospel. That's "Good News", in a foreign language. By foreign I mean "unknown to us one-language speaking English people." Any word which is not translated into its English equivalent fails to have the impact on us that the understanding of that word would bring. I was surprised to discover there are numerous un-translated words in the bible. There are Aramaic words, Hebrew words, Greek words and Latin words. Even in the King James bible there are Old-English words whose meanings have been lost to most people through time, and need to be looked up. I believe that without understanding the meaning of words on which our faith is hinged, it is very difficult to understand that faith. When asked about the Gospel, most church goers would give as many answers as the church has denominations. My aim is, that through understanding the meaning of certain words, you will look at some truths in a new and brighter light, that the Holy Spirit will illuminate the Word in a fresh revelation.
I will start with the most important word not translated. Christ. That's right, you've been reading Greek the whole time. Christ was never His name. His name was Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary, of the tribe of Judah. That's what His earthly ancestry was, and that's how you were named then. The word Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah. The Hebrew word Messiah means, literally, Anointed. Anointed means to pour over, rub into or smear on. The Anointed is the literal English translation of the words Christ and Messiah. Jesus was the Anointed One.
So, Anointed with what? What was poured over, rubbed into and smeared onto Jesus? The Holy Spirit of The Living God, that's what. He was Anointed with God. All through the history of Israel they were looking for the Anointed One. Jesus ended their search when, in Luke 4:16 - 21, He walked into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was His custom, and read the first verses of Isaiah 61. He read,
" The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the blind, to proclaim the year of the Lords favor." (NIV)
So Jesus was the Christ, the Anointed one. What was it that did the works of healing and miracles and wonders? That Anointing, the Anointing of the Holy Spirit. So when your bible reads "Christ", read it as "the Anointed One and His Anointing". It's just English.
The next word is obviously "Christian". The book of Acts tells us the disciples, or "ones learning the discipline", were first called Christians at Antioch, in Syria. Why? Well, Acts 11:26 says that Barnabas went to Tarsus and got Paul and they taught the church at Antioch a whole year and taught great numbers of people. Then it says it was here they were first called Christians. Obviously it had to do with what Paul was preaching. What Paul was preaching was the same thing the rest of the Christians were preaching,
" -how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and Power, and how He went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with Him." (Acts 10:38) That is a summary of what Jesus did. Every time great crowds brought their sick and lame and blind to Him, He had compassion on them and healed them. The difference between sympathy and compassion is this; sympathy feels sorry for the people, compassion does something about the problem. Jesus said He was sent to destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8) Jesus set free the woman who was bowed over for 18 years. When answering the criticism of the Pharisees for healing on the Sabbath day, He called them hypocrites. He asked which one of them would not surely loose his cattle and lead it to water of the Sabbath? If they would do that for their cattle, He asked then shouldn't this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom satan had bound for 18 years be healed on the Sabbath? His mission was to destroy the works of the devil. To destroy that which leads to death. Sickness, disease, sin, immorality, poverty. That is very consistent with the loving God we see in the Old Testament. He had always been against the devil and his works Everything had been leading up to Jesus. Then He came. He died on the cross sinless. He died for us, taking the curse of the law upon Himself and being made a curse for us, in our place.(Galatians 3:13) Then God raised Him from the dead, seated Him on the right hand of God, the Majesty on high (Heb 1:3), and told Him that He had an everlasting kingdom (Heb 1:8). Then Jesus gave us His Name, that Name that is above every other name, the Name by which men must come to God (Mark 16:17). Most importantly, on the Day of Pentecost, God made the Holy Spirit available to all men, by that same Name. Through that Name we have access to the long promised Holy Spirit. God's Spirit Himself, to come and dwell in you, for it is written,
" Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:23). To live in you, on you and around you. The deposit of the Glory to come, the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Now He is here, to lead, to guide, to teach and correct. Now He will write His laws on your hearts and minds, put His thoughts and desires in your heart. This is what they preached when the bible says they "preached Christ" (Acts 8:5, 9:20). They preached what Jesus preached. They could have said it like this,
"The Spirit of the Lord Jesus is upon ME, for He has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor, to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to the bound. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." He said,
" Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater [works] than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." (John 14:12) That was the good news they preached, and God backed their words up, as Hebrews 2:4 says, by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will. That’s why miracles and healings happened, because God had anointed them with Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus the Anointed One and His Anointing. So the people at Antioch called them "Anointed ones". That's what "Christian" means, "Anointed ones", and that is what an unbelieving world has to see and what we were told to show it. The book of Acts was our guide and we should be, and can be, walking in the Power of God just like they were. M.F.