The Servant of the Lord is Messiah. Messiah (Christ) is the One anointed with the Oil of the Holy Spirit. In ancient times it was customary for the Jews to anoint kings and priests with olive oil as a sign of their high position.

Christ is not Jesus' last name. Christ is the title Jesus has as the Anointed Deliverer from God. Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ.

The Servant of the Lord also is Israel, the people God has anointed with His Holy Spirit to reveal His Person and law to the nations of the earth.

The Messiah (Christ) and Israel are closely related, except that Jesus Christ is the One who has been with the Father from the beginning.

The great revelation of the Bible is that Christ, the Messiah, includes not only the Divine Head, Jesus Christ, but also a Body. We are going to capitalize the Body of Christ because it is an inseparable part of the Lord Jesus Christ and also to distinguish it from the physical body of Jesus Christ.

Christ, the Messiah, includes the Lord Jesus the Head and also the members of His Body. Please note that Jesus is not merely one member of a many-membered Christ. Some have fallen into this error. Jesus Christ is the Lord and supreme Head of the entire universe of God let alone of the Church. The Lord Jesus is the Center and Circumference of all the works of God and all shall be summed up in Him. He alone is the slain Lamb and the Bridegroom.

Having established this rock forever let us proceed to describe the nature and destiny of the Servant of the Lord Christ, Head and Body.

Messiah (Christ) is coming. The Jews know this. The Christians know this. "When Messiah comes . . ." is the song of Jews and Christians.

What Jews and Christians do not always understand is that the term Messiah includes all who are anointed with the Spirit of God to bring deliverance to God's elect and justice to the saved nations.

You may notice in our writings that we make a difference between the elect and the saved nations. Let us hasten to explain. God's elect are Israel, the physical people of Israel of the Old Testament and the Christian Church (including Jews and Gentiles) of the New. All of these are the one Bride of the Lamb, the elect of God, Israel, the Church, and in the sense in which we are speaking, the Messiah of God. They are not the Lord Jesus but they are His Body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

The saved nations are the remaining peoples of the earth who have been accepted of God because they have believed the testimony of God's elect.

Until you come to realize that God's elect are one anointed company with the Lord Jesus as the Head, and that they as a governing priesthood are forever separate from the saved nations of the world, you will understand neither the Old Testament nor the New. I know this sounds arrogant of me to make such a statement but I am too old and tired to waste time trying to be humble.

It is fashionable in science to test a hypothesis by assuming it is true and then examining the consequences of your position to see if they line up with the relevant phenomena. Assume that the statement in the preceding paragraph is true and then read the Bible to see if your hypothesis covers the bases.

To be continued.