In the Bible, though Hebrew kings wore crowns to designate their office, the ceremony in which they were put into that office centered on being anointed with oil. For example, God told the prophet Samuel,

Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.

Samuel did as he was told and, after a process of discovery, learned that God had chosen David to be king over Israel:

And the LORD said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.” Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward.

As Israel progressed, they came to call the expected king who would be chosen by God according to this ceremony: The Anointed One, or Messiah (in Hebrew) or Christ (in Greek). The New Testament Christians learned this Hebrew heritage. “Christ” was never reduced to Jesus’ last name.

We see this especially in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, when he writes:

Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time? As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

In the Greek, “in Christ and has anointed” is εἰς Χριστὸν καὶ χρίσας (en Christon kai chrisas). There is no way that Paul would write that without being sure his readers would tie the title of Jesus to the ceremony of anointing with oil.

But when did God anoint Paul and the Corinthians, and put his seal on them? Paul has already referred to this event in his first letter:

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body— Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

So understand, Christian, God has placed you in an office through an objective, tactile experience by which he designated you.

God could have simply had Samuel preach to David that he was king.

And God could have simply told Abram that He had promised to give him an inheritance–and that should be good enough.

But that’s not how God works with us in His Kingdom.

He had Samuel anoint David and so gave him the gift of His Spirit.

And when Abram asked how he could know of his inheritance, God entered into a covenant with him by a ceremony (Genesis 15).

By faith, Abraham knew he had God’s sealed promise in that event.

By faith, David knew being anointed by Samuel with oil meant he was king.

Your faith should tell you that God has done the same to, with, and for you in your baptism.

What do you think the name Christian is supposed to mean?