‘Jesus Christ’ or ‘Christ Jesus’?
Sunday 10thSeptember 2023
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Saviour
and of Christ Jesus our hope,
To Timothy my true son in the faith:
Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 1 Timothy 1:1-2 (NIV)
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
‘Jesus Christ’ or ‘Christ Jesus’?
Have you noticed that sometimes the Bible speaks of ‘Jesus Christ’ and sometimes of ‘Christ Jesus’ (as well as sometimes using a single word such as ‘Jesus’, ‘Christ’ or ‘Lord’)? And have you ever wondered why this might be?
The first thing to remember is that ‘Jesus’ is his personal name, while ‘Christ’ is not another name, like a family name, because ‘Christ’ is a title rather than a name. It is the Greek version of the Hebrew word ‘Messiah’, the one promised by God in the Old Testament and anointed by him. So, we ought to think of him being ‘the Christ’, so that he is ‘Jesus, the Christ’ or ‘the Christ, Jesus.’ To make a silly comparison, it is not like reversing my names ‘Chris’ and ‘Hobbs’ so that ‘Chris Hobbs’ becomes ‘Hobbs Chris’, because neither of my names is a title.
In his commentary on the pastoral epistles (1 Timothy, Titus, 2 Timothy), George W Knight III observes that Paul moves from speaking of ‘Jesus Christ’ in his earlier writings to ‘Christ Jesus’ in his later writings. 1 Timothy, one of his latest letters, is a good example of this pattern, where three times in the first two verses Paul speaks of ‘Christ Jesus’ and that remains the pattern for the whole letter (except when he speaks of ‘our Lord Jesus Christ’, e.g. 6:3, 14).
Why should this be, this preference for ‘Christ Jesus’? Knight suggests that, for Paul, being ‘in Christ’ is a dominant theme. Our communion with Christ as Messiah is all important because it is ‘in Christ’ that we share the benefits of him being our anointed king, priest and prophet. So the work and status of Christ as Messiah takes precedence over identifying him as Jesus the man. And so he speaks of being ‘in Christ’ or ‘in Christ Jesus’, and not ‘in Jesus Christ.’
I realise this may all sound unnecessarily technical! So, what is the ‘take-away’? What difference does it make to us? The key idea is that Jesus is the Christ, the one anointed by God to bring salvation to his people, which includes judgment on his enemies, and we are not waiting for anyone else to fill that role. Also, we as Christians are ‘in Christ’, and so get to share in all that Jesus the Christ has won for us through his birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension.
Father, thank you that Jesus is the Christ, your anointed, and that ‘in Christ’ we have him as our king to govern us, our priest to save us and our prophet to guide us. Amen.
Yours warmly, in Christ,
Chris Hobbs (Senior Minister)