Understanding the AnointingIf people would just stop and think for a moment, they
would see this in the passage of Scripture we have just been
studying in Luke 4.
He was in His hometown of Nazareth on the sabbath day,
went to the synagogue, and was given the scroll of Isaiah to read
from. He read the passage we just studied: "The Spirit o f the
Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me.... " After He
had finished reading, Jesus handed the scroll back to the
minister, sat down, and began to teach the people.
He said, "THIS DAY is this scripture fulfilled in your ears"
(v. 21).
If Jesus had been ministering as the Son o f God, He
wouldn't have needed to be anointed. Or, if He had been
ministering as God manifested in the flesh, would God have
needed to be anointed?
Who is going to anoint God?
In Philippians 2:7, it says that Jesus "made himself o f no
reputation, and took upon him the form o f a servant, and was
made in the likeness o f men. " The King James Version is a
little unclear here. Other translations say He "laid aside" or
"stripped Himself" of "His mighty power and glory" when He
came into this world, even though He was the Son of God.
He came as a man. How did He do it? I don't know. The
Bible says He did it, and I believe it!
As I've said many times, Jesus was just as much the Son of
God when He was 21 years old as He was when He was 30 years
old. He was just as much the Son of God when He was 25 as He
was when He was 30. He was just as much the Son of God all
those years—25, 26, 27, 28, 29, wasn't He? Yet in all of those
years, He never healed a person or wrought a miracle!
How do we know this? Because the Bible says so. The Bible
tells us that Jesus was anointed after He was baptized of John in
Jordan, and the Holy Spirit came upon Him in a bodily shape
like a dove (Luke 3:22). God spoke from heaven and said, "This
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:17).