When the Son became thirty years of age, God anointed Him for the carrying out of His commission. Matthew 3:16 and 17 speak of this: “Having been baptized, Jesus went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and coming upon Him; and behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I delight.” Because the Lord Jesus was baptized, fulfilling God’s righteousness, the heavens were opened to Him, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him, and the Father spoke concerning Him. Before the Spirit of God descended and came upon Him, the Lord Jesus had been born of the Spirit (Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:18, 20), which proved that He already had the Spirit of God within Him. That was for His birth. Now, for His ministry, the Spirit of God descended upon Him. That was for the fulfillment of Isaiah 61:1; 42:1; and Psalm 45:7 to anoint Him to carry out His God-given commission.
The Lord Jesus was inaugurated into His ministry by two steps: baptism in water and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. After the Lord Jesus was baptized, God the Father sent the Holy Spirit upon Him economically, anointing Him for His ministry.
In Luke 4:18 and 19 we have a further word regarding God’s anointing the Son for the carrying out of His ministry: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to send away in release those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” Here we see that the Spirit of the Lord was upon the Son because God had anointed Him to bring good news to the poor. The Greek word rendered “bring good news” is euaggelizo, which means to evangelize, to announce good news. To preach the gospel was the first commission of the Savior as God’s anointed One, the Messiah. Furthermore, God had sent Him to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send away in release those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, which is the New Testament age typified by the year of jubilee (Lev. 25:8-17), a time when God accepts the returned captives of sin and when the oppressed under the bondage of sin may enjoy the release of God’s salvation. The point we are emphasizing here, however, is that part of God’s work was to anoint the Son.
Another verse that speaks of God’s work in anointing Christ is Acts 10:38: “Jesus, the One from Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and power, who went about doing good and healing all those who were oppressed by the Devil, for God was with Him.” God anointed Christ also to do good and to heal all the sick who were oppressed by the Devil. This proves that God was with Him.
Acts 2:22 says, “Jesus the Nazarene, a man demonstrated by God to you by works of power and wonders and signs, which God did through Him in your midst.” The Greek word translated “demonstrated” here literally means to point out, to exhibit, to show forth, in the sense of proving by demonstrating, thus bringing about an approval. This indicates that the Lord’s work was God’s demonstration of Him, His exhibition of Him. While Christ was ministering, whatever He did was an exhibition of the work done by God through Him. In the four Gospels we have the exhibition of a wonderful person, the God-man, who was fully tested, proved, and approved by God.
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