“Christ” comes from "Kristos" meaning "anointed”.

In Biblical times, kings and priests were anointed as a sign of their appointment. So “Christ” means someone appointed for a special purpose. Other themes show what the Bible tells us this special person will do. A selection of verses showing that Jesus is the special person referred to as the “Christ”.

Put simply, the ransom is Jehovah’s means to deliver, or save, humankind from sin and death. (Ephesians 1:7)

Already in the Garden of Eden God promised some one who would make an end to the curse of death which came over mankind by the fall of man.

Man in the early days of his existence had rebelled against God and received a penalty for their wrong choice. They came to know good and evil but also came to feel the problems coming forth of that knowledge. They also would from then onwards be confronted with pain, suffering, sorrow and death.

Problem with the children of Adam and Eve is that they all came from parents with a fault. As such they got the DNA from those imperfect parents. Born and shaped in iniquity, men were doomed to live with their minor and major flaws. They also fell under the curse God had spoken out over Adam and Eve, having a life full of hardship and ending into death. Death being the penalty for their sins.

Under the Mosaic law given to Israel the sins of the people were forgiven in a pictorial way by the animal sacrifices made and offered up by the high priest. Yet in a real sense the blood of bulls did not effect an actual release of permanent nature from the penalty of sin, death; for all those conforming to the law eventually died. Moreover, the sacrifices had to be repeated at regular intervals.

The law covenant was actually a “shadow of the good things to come,” illustrating what God would do through his Son, Jesus Christ. (Heb. 10:1-3, NW)

“Consequently, the Law has become our tutor leading to Christ, that we might be declared righteous due to faith.”—Gal. 3:24, NW.

But even under the law arrangement righteousness was imputed only by the shedding of blood. You could say the animals were innocent, but they never could take in the full place a human being.

Shedding innocent blood was a requirement to pay for the wrongdoings of man.

In viewing the sacrifice and ransom of Jesus we must bear in mind the plain statement of Scripture that

“unless blood is poured out no forgiveness takes place.”

That is why Israel through the high priest continuously offered the blood of animals to obtain, in a pictorial sense, the yearly release from sins. But with the coming of Jesus Christ there is a great change, for

“he entered, no, not with the blood of goats and of young bulls, but with his own blood, once for all time into the holy place and obtained an everlasting release for us.” (Heb. 9:22, 12, NW)

That is what is so importatn for the world and what everybody should come to know. Jehovah God did not come to eartt to fake His temptation (because God cannot be tempted) or to fake His death (because God cannot die as an Eternal Spirit Being).

But the Nazarene man of flesh and blood, who was seen by many (God cannot be seen by man) really was tempted and really died. His death was a special death. Namely Jesus let himself be taken prison, doing the Will of his heavenly Father. As an innocent lamb he was taken to the slaughter.

The one who was foreshadowed by the animal sacrifices of the Israelites, had come and established an everlasting release by giving himself as a sacrificial price offering (price of redemption) for all sinning people.

Jesus paid the ransom price. Now it was a matter of qualifying to receive the benefit of that release by ransom.

The apostle Peter confirms that it is the shed blood of Jesus that provides the atoning and ransom merit:

“For you know that it was not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, as a ransom that you were released from your fruitless form of conduct received by tradition from your forefathers. But it was with precious blood, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb, even Christ’s.” — 1 Pet. 1:18, 19, NW.

At the beginning Adam was without fault or perfect and living in a perfect world. In Jesus Christ the world got a second Adam, again a man directly made by God. Jesus is the son of God and a son of man.

Having lived faultless and willing to do the Will of God, Jesus Christ had the lifeblood of a perfect man. He poured out his blood in a sacrificial death at the stake. By doing so he is thus seen to have a saving merit in behalf of those who exercise faith in it. Hence it is the blood given in sacrifice that is needed to effect the salvation of the world, not merely the

“profound, substantial, everlasting truths of the Christian gospel.”

There would be no release without the shed blood. The Scriptures emphasize this truth outstandingly. It is sheer folly, then, to view the self-sacrificing course of Jesus as essentially unnecessary to his saviourhood of the world. If the merit of the shed blood is not applied in behalf of any person, that man has no hope of gaining everlasting life. The perfect lifeblood of Jesus Christ corresponded to that life value that Adam lost. When Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, he had in his possession the right to perfect human life with all its prospects, exactly what Adam by the sin of disobedience had lost for the human race. This ransom price Jesus handed over in the presence of God and in exchange therefore received the human race for the purpose of giving deserving members of it the opportunity to gain everlasting life.

“15 But not as the trespass, so also is the free gift. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound unto the many. 16 And not as through one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment came of one unto condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses unto justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; much more shall they that receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, even Jesus Christ. 18 So then as through one trespass the judgment came unto all men to condemnation; even so through one act of righteousness the free gift came unto all men to justification of life. 19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be made righteous.” (Ro 5:15-19 ASV)

Many forget to see or understand that though Jesus Christ died for all, not all shall profit from his death.

To those who heard with belief and ‘stuck with him in his trials’ Jesus promised great blessings in the Kingdom. (Luke 22:28-30, NW) And he said that other sheep would in later times listen with faith and receive blessings, also.

But to those unbelieving Jews who encircled him and derided his message demanding to know if he was the Christ, Jesus replied,

“I told you and yet you do not believe. . . . you do not believe, because you are none of my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give them everlasting life, and they will by no means ever be destroyed.” (John 10:16-30, NW)

Those unbelievers later tried to stone Jesus. Jesus also spoke about people who could hear about salvation but would not act properly on it, or people who would not worship the right and Only One God. He warned the people around him that the way could seem very wide, but is narrow, the same as the gate is narrow.

Promise of a ransom to everlasting life was held out to absolutely no such persons, but only to the believers, the “sheep.”

The instructions Jesus gave to his disciples add weight to the truth that the ransom would not apply to all men individually, for, said he,

“wherever anyone does not take you in or listen to your words, on going out of that house or that city shake the dust off your feet. Truly I say to you, It will be more endurable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on Judgment Day than for that city.” (Matt. 10:14, 15, NW)

He was pin-pointing the utter impossibility of ransom for unbelievers or those wilfully wicked, because Sodom and Gomorrah were irrevocably condemned and destroyed, beyond any possible recovery.

Adam’s offspring were born under condemnation as a result of Adam’s wilful act, yet not because of anything they themselves had done. (Rom. 16:20; Rev. 20:10, NW; Hos. 6:7, AS; Rom. 5:14, NW) Hence, for them Jehovah provided the opportunity for recovery from this slavery by a release by ransom through Jesus Christ.

But people have their own choice either to believe in Christ or not. People have to come to believe in Christ Jesus, him being the son of God, being the way to God and the way to life.

It requires hearing and belief in the good news that Jesus preached and that is, true to his promise, being preached today throughout the earth. It means activity in a positive way to support the entire arrangement of Jehovah God for the establishment of a new world, for which the blood of Jesus provided a basis.

Adam, brought death to all men; but it is equally true that

“through one act of justification [on the part of Jesus Christ] the result to men of all kinds is a declaring of them righteous for life.” (Rom. 5:18; Matt. 25:45, 46; John 3:36, NW)

Jesus died for all and as such the grace is given to all. But people have to accept the offer of grace. Men doing nothing with that precious gift are nothing with it. They have nothing to do for it, but they certainly have something do with it.

The “men of all kinds” spoken about are the “sheep” who hear and believe in the ransom merit of Jesus Christ, and who show their belief by their works and way of living. Without works the faith is death. There are those who shall fail to enter the Kingdom of God, whilst others shall have the ransom merit of Jesus’ blood applied in their behalf, because they recognize its worth and apply for its benefits on the terms Jehovah lays down in his Word.

At the end of times, after Armageddon, Jesus shall judge the living and the dead, and the wicked from among the righteous shall be shifted. We may not forget:

It is a difficult thing for an upright man to qualify for ransom because of the great testings of faith involved.

“And if the righteous man is being saved with difficulty, where will the ungodly man and the sinner make a showing?”—1 Pet. 4:18, NW.

It is God’s will

“that all kinds of men should be saved and come to an accurate knowledge of truth.” (1 Tim. 2:4, NW)

So he does not discriminate against any in granting them the opportunity to receive life by means of the ransom, but neither does He force the ransom’s benefit upon men against their own choice.

He owes men nothing,

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

but in his loving-kindness he offers life as a gift, because

“it is as a free gift that they are being declared righteous by his undeserved kindness through the release by the ransom paid by Christ Jesus.”

But men must seek and accept that gift with thankfulness, as did the apostle Paul, who exclaimed:

“Thanks be to God for his indescribable free gift.” — Rom. 3:23, 24; 2 Cor. 9:15, NW.

Those who are walking in the light and are willing to have partnership with one another and the blood of Jesus, God His Son shall be cleansed from all sin. — Rev. 7:14, 15; 1 John 1:7, NW.

Before all of us there is a great choice, namely, to accept the gift of God or cast it aside. True to the accurate prediction of Jesus, the good news of the Kingdom is being preached in all the inhabited earth as a testimony. (1 Cor. 10:11; Matt. 24:14, NW) Persons who hear must, before they can ever place their hope in the great blessings of the Kingdom, first exercise faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ. They must appreciate the efficacy of his blood in opening up the way to life in that new world. They must be firmly convinced that there is

“one mediator between God and men, a man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a corresponding ransom for all kinds of people.” (1 Tim. 2:5, 6, NW, margin)

They must confess Jesus Christ as their saviour, by Jehovah’s undeserved kindness, and seek their approach to God by means of Him, according to the way outlined in Jehovah’s Word. This means they must dedicate themselves to Him through Christ according to the principles of righteousness set forth in the Holy Scriptures, to be faithful servants of God and show their faith by works.