The English word “anoint” is derived from the Greek word “chrio” which literally means “to rub or smear”, understood of course to mean with oil. From “chrio” we of course get the word “christos” from which we have the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is “the Anointed One”.
What was our Lord anointed to do?
Of course He was anointed primarily to save us from sin—by forgiving our sins and thus granting us eternal life. That is why we call Him Savior. The Greek word for save is “sozo”. The word “sozo” includes not only saving from sin, but also to heal from sickness, to deliver or protect, to preserve, to save, to do well, to be or make whole. That is what Jesus was anointed to do through His death and resurrection.
In Mark 2 we see the intimate connection between the Lord’s anointing to heal the sick on the one hand and to save us from sin on the other hand—an anointing which no man or woman can claim to have.
Mark 2:1 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
Jesus obviously knew that the paralytic was brought to him to be healed. Interestingly, however, Jesus does not first heal him, but instead forgives his sins.
6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
The teachers of the law were understandably shocked. Since only God has the authority to forgive sins, Jesus was in effect claiming to be God by telling the paralytic “your sins are forgiven”. Jesus was of course expecting the teachers of the law to be indignant.
8 Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? 9 Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’?
It’s of course much easier to say to a paralytic before a crowd of people “Your sins are forgiven” than to say “Get up and walk”. The forgiveness of sins on earth is an entirely invisible event taking place in the realm of the spirit, and so there’s no visible evidence that sins have actually been forgiven by God simply by someone uttering the phrase. Therefore it is easy to say in front of a crowd. Preachers say it all the time in their meetings after people have prayed the sinner’s prayer.
But to say to a paralytic in front of a crowd ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’ would appear to be extremely risky indeed. WHAT IF THE PARALYTIC DOESN’T GET UP? — which of course is what will certainly take place under “normal” circumstances. We thus make ourselves look very foolish in front of others. Therefore it is much easier and safer to say to a paralytic ‘Your sins are forgiven’.
10 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.”
Jesus will prove to the teachers of the law and everyone present that He in fact has authority to forgive sins, and therefore that He is in fact God incarnate.
So he said to the man, 11 “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
By actually performing that which was far harder to say—healing the paralytic—he proved that He had authority to do that which was far “easier” to say—forgiving sins. By performing a miraculous healing that only God Himself could do, he also proved that He was the Son of God of course having authority to forgive sins and grant eternal life.
As the Christ —“the Anointed One”— His anointing to heal the sick miraculously was an integral part of His anointing to save sinners from punishment in hell. They constituted a single package called “the Anointing”.
The Anointed One who has authority to heal sickness—the consequence of sin and our sinful nature—is the Anointed One who has authority to forgive sin itself.
The Anointed One who has the authority to release us from the prison of sickness and suffering is the Anointed One who has the authority to pardon our sin that put us into that prison.
Can any servant of God claim to have “the anointing” or to be “anointed”?
Luke 4:1 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
Only Jesus the Son of Man claimed to be anointed to do these things; only He has authority to proclaim and bring to pass “the year of the Lord’s favor” for those who receive Him.
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“The anointing” in the New Testament
More clarification on “the anointing”