Psalm 2 speaks of a king whom God calls “my Son,” a ruler chosen and anointed to carry out the divine purpose for Israel. In its ancient setting, this language expressed favor and calling — the divine approval resting on the Davidic king, not a claim to divinity. When Jesus echoed these words, and when his followers saw them reflected in his life, they understood him within that same hope: the long-expected, God-appointed ruler who would bring renewal to Israel.
In the Gospels, especially the Synoptics, the term “Messiah” (Christos) keeps this plain, royal-Davidic meaning — the anointed king chosen by YHWH to restore Israel. The disciples’ understanding of Jesus reflects this view: a human leader empowered by God to deliver the nation.
This can be seen in:
- Peter’s confession: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16) — in its Jewish context, “the divinely appointed king.”
- The Triumphal Entry: the crowd hails Jesus with royal psalms and imagery — “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” (Mark 11:10).
- After the resurrection: the disciples still ask, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6), showing their hope for an earthly kingship.
Jesus was thus seen as the human Messiah. This understanding did not change during the Gospel period, but over time Christ became not just a title but almost a name — a distinct identity. Several forces shaped this development:
- Resurrection faith: The early believers experienced Jesus as alive and exalted, transforming “the anointed king” into “the risen Lord,” sharing God’s authority.
- Hellenistic environment: As the message spread into the Greek-speaking world, Christos began functioning as a proper name rather than a title — Iēsous Christos rather than Iēsous ho Christos.
- Scriptural rereading: Passages such as Psalm 2, Isaiah 53, and Daniel 7 were reinterpreted as referring to this particular person, not just any messianic figure.
- Community identity: To belong to “the Christ” became a way of naming the movement itself — Christianos, the followers of Christ.
It is possible that later developments arose because church leaders could no longer see Jesus in the way his earliest followers had: as a man chosen and empowered by God. They felt compelled to ascribe to him a higher, more metaphysical divinity. In doing so, they may have moved away from the simple faith of the first disciples, who saw Jesus as the one through whom God’s reign would come on earth.
Even in the time of the apostles, this shift had already begun to stir. When Paul preached in Athens, the Stoic and Epicurean philosophers thought he was “proclaiming foreign gods” (Acts 17:18). To Jewish believers, his message about Jesus and the resurrection meant that the God of Israel had vindicated His anointed one; but to Greek ears, it sounded like the introduction of new deities — “Jesus” as one god and “Anastasis” (Resurrection) as a goddess. This misunderstanding reveals how the message was already being reframed by the categories of Hellenistic thought. As the gospel spread, ideas of kingship and anointing gave way to questions of essence and divinity, setting the stage for the later theological formulations of the Church.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ to eternal life and kingship brings the fullest realization of all that his anointing entails. As Paul emphasizes in 1 Corinthians 15, the Father will subject all things to the Son, and then the Son will in turn submit all things to the Father, so that “God may be all in all.” In this ultimate act, the anointed king vindicates the Father’s rule: the rebellion of nations and rulers is decisively put down, and God’s covenantal authority is established forever. The resurrection is therefore not only the vindication of Jesus personally but also the fulfillment of the divine promise to Israel — the anointed Son acting as God’s agent to bring justice, order, and enduring peace to creation. In this way, the Father’s plan, carried out through the exalted Son, brings the royal vision of Psalm 2 to its eternal conclusion.
Jesus will forever remain subject to the Father, yet the Father grants him to reign beside Him for all eternity. The resurrection marked the true moment of Jesus’ anointing; through it the Father vindicated him as the Christ and exalted him to the full authority and kingship promised in Scripture. Hebrews portrays this anointing not in oil but in joy: “God has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions” (Heb. 1:9). It is a joy that crowns him above all others — the joy of completed obedience, of love perfected, of divine approval beyond measure. The resurrection is thus both the confirmation of his messianic identity and the bestowal of the ultimate reward and authority: joy, lordship, and eternal participation in the Father’s reign — making him the fully anointed king through whom God’s purposes are realized.
If Jesus were merely a divine being appearing in human form, his eternal reign would carry little consequence for us; it would only suggest a pantheon of two gods. But Jesus is truly human — one of us — and this truth challenges every disciple to become like him. He was perfected through learning obedience, and in that perfection he entered the very presence of the Father to intercede on our behalf. His faith in the Father is the pattern for our own. By trusting in the Father’s love and seeking to please Him, Jesus shares in the Father’s rule over all creation. We too are called to learn obedience and faith, to live as he lived, and to share, in measure, that same royal calling — to overcome as he overcame, and in the resurrection to rule beside him, as he rules beside the Father.
Rediscovering this earliest vision of Jesus — not only as the exalted Christ but as the human Messiah, God’s anointed king — can deepen our faith by reminding us of the roots of the gospel: a God who chooses, empowers, and works through human life to bring restoration. Seeing Jesus in this light preserves both his intimacy with humanity and the power of divine calling, offering a vision of discipleship grounded in trust, hope, and participation in God’s unfolding reign. The gospel began in simple, accessible faith, and that same faith still holds the power to transform us today.
