Some confess that “Jesus is the Christ” but do not fully understand what they are confessing.  The Bible defines the words Messiah and Christ as being the same thing.  John translated the word Messiah when he recorded Andrew as informing Peter, “We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ” (John 1:41).  To the Jews, the words Christ (Greek) and Messiah (Hebrew) were literally translated “the anointed one” which was another word for a king.  Jewish kings were crowned by being anointed.  Samuel anointed Saul and David as kings by using the oil of anointing.  When he was going to ‘anoint’ David as king in the place of king Saul, he saw Eliab and said, “surely the Lord’s anointed is before him” (1 Sam. 16:6). David referred to king Saul as the Lord’s anointed (1 Sam. 24:5,6). Thus the Messiah or Christ was the king of the kingdom which God had promised to set up.  The scriptures identify these two words together.

If the Jews could find the king, (the Messiah, the Christ), they could find the kingdom. When the chief priests asked if Jesus were the Christ, they wanted to know if he were the king of the kingdom of God (Luke 22:67).  They did not believe his confession that he was the Christ, the king of Israel.  However, when they sought to justify themselves for wanting to crucify Christ, they accused him of making himself king of a kingdom that was seeking to destroy the Roman government.  Jesus told Pilate “My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence” (John 18:36).  Pilate understood that Jesus was no threat to the Roman government.  He then put the sign over Christ that he was the King of the Jews (Luke 23:38).  Jesus confessed that he was the king (Matt. 27:11).