Sunday, 23 August 2026
CHRIST — THE GOD-MAN DELIVERER
And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16).
We have to understand something about the name, Christ. It’s the English form of the Greek “Christos,” and that is the Greek form of the Hebrew “Messiah.” What does “Messiah” mean? It means the God-man deliverer. That’s why Jesus is called the Anointed One, the God-man Messiah.
From the prophecies of Moses and the other prophets, they understood that a Messiah would come, the God-man would come, and that this God-man would deliver them. And what kind of deliverance were they expecting? The ultimate deliverance! It was the deliverance from all evil and from all that’s human. Why did the Jews think that way?
It’s because they knew that what was human had become corrupted. They knew the story of how man fell in the Garden of Eden through Adam’s transgression. Thus, they believed that only the God-man deliverer, the ultimate deliverer, could set humanity free from Satan’s bondage and the corruption that worked in nature.
Man’s heart became deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). So, man realised he needed deliverance from himself, from that fallen nature. That’s why they looked forward to the coming of the God-man, the Messiah. That’s why He was called the Anointed One. Not because they didn’t know about the anointing. They knew Moses was anointed, likewise the priests.
They knew the Kings, for example, David, and even Saul, and then the Prophets, were all anointed. They were familiar with the anointing. So they weren’t just talking about an anointed one but the God-man. That was their expectation.
But sadly, when He came, they didn’t recognise Him. The Bible says, "He came unto his own, and his own received him not” (John 1:11). Jesus is that God-man. He is the Christ. Not just an anointed man, but the One who brought the ultimate deliverance. In Him, you’ve been delivered from all that’s evil and from the fallen human nature. You’ve been brought into a new life.
You’re not trying to be delivered; you’ve been delivered: “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son” (Colossians 1:13). You’re not of the old human order; you’re a new creation by reason of Christ — the God-man deliverer. Blessed be God!
PRAYER: Dear Father, I thank you for the revelation of Jesus Christ, the God-man and my ultimate deliverer. I live in the consciousness of this truth that I’ve been brought into a new life in Christ, a life of glory and righteousness. I walk in this reality today, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
FURTHER STUDY:
John 1:14; Psalms 37:39-40; Isaiah 19:20
1-YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: 1 Corinthians 8 & Psalms 120-127
2-YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Colossians 2:1-7 & Jeremiah 8