Why do Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah?

The Historical Divide Between Judaism and Christianity

For millions of people, there is a presumed divide between Judaism and Christianity. Sure, they are both monotheistic and trace their origins back to Abraham, but many assume these groups have little else in common. There has also been a significant amount of hostility between the adherents of these two religions, from the ugly history of “Christian” antisemitism to the relatively minor angst many Jews express in the face of Christian evangelism (aka “proselytizing”). These realities spark a provocative question:

Are Christians worshiping the “Messiah” promised to the Jewish people?

The New Testament opens with the line, “The book of the genealogy of Yeshua ha-Mashiach, Ben-David, Ben-Avraham” (Matthew 1:1), or, as we commonly see in English translations, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (esv). Still, other (more recent) translations have adopted more of a hybrid approach: “The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (nasb). However you cut it, the New Testament starts with an assumption that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah (aka “Christ”) and then dives right into proving this bold claim. We should note that those first-century authors largely assumed that their audiences knew and understood this concept (i.e., “Messiah”) and its significance. Contrastingly, Gentile Christians living 2,000 years and 7,000 miles removed can be left wondering what this “Messiah thing” is all about.

The confusion comes in various forms, with some believing that “Christ” was as the holy family’s surname, as in, Mr. and Mrs. Christ who raised little baby Jesus Christ. Ironically, I currently have a neighbor here in Israel named Yoseph Hamashiach (the Hebrew term for “The Messiah”). Needless to say, that piece of anecdotal information makes it easy for me to understand how a misunderstanding like this could crop up. For the record, surnames didn’t appear in Middle Eastern and European cultures until nearly a thousand years after the writing of the New Testament.[i] So, despite whatever grandiose visions my neighbor’s forefathers may have had for his life, we can definitively rule out the surname theory for first-century Jesus.

[i] Encyclopædia Britannica, January 19, 2025. https://www.britannica.com/topic/name/Family-names.

Another misconception that complicates our understanding of Jesus as the Messiah is that the New Testament is divorced from the Old Testament in a profound—almost severe—way. This notion emerged in its most extreme form in a second-century heresy called Marcionism. You read that right: we’re talking about a very real and authentic heresy here (not just something we dislike or disagree with). Marcion and his followers insisted that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament were completely different entities, to the extent that the former was Satan and the One who sent Jesus was the true God. This stunning heresy is sadly making an eerie comeback in contemporary times. Beyond its overt errors, the essence of Marcionism has lingered in various ways, such as suggestions that God somehow changed in the New Testament or that the New Testament took off in a radically new direction. We’re not even flirting with an exhaustive look at these sorts of misconceptions, but we want to show how one lousy idea can lead to a world of distortion. Of course, more than dissecting every possible error, we want to explore the truth revealed in God’s Word.

What truth does the Bible offer us regarding the Messiah’s identity? We start from the premise that the Old and New Testaments tell a single story, the narrative of a holy and righteous God who is committed to enjoying unrestrained relationship with those who bear His image and likeness. Rabbi Haim Vital wrote about the intentionality of God in creation, “When it arose in the will of the Holy One Blessed be His name to create the world, in order to be good to His creation, that they might recognize His greatness, and so be a vehicle for His presence that they might bond with Him.” The God of Scripture—Genesis through Revelation—is inescapably good and determined to express that goodness in ways that foster fellowship with Him. Hence, we read in Revelation 13:8 that Jesus was slain from before the foundation of the world. Such a claim merits a pause. The Creator always knew we would need saving (from our self-destructive inclinations) and took pre-emptive action! The Incarnation was not “Plan B”! This claim is integral to the central theme of the Bible: exile and return/redemption. The motif first appears with humanity’s exile from the Garden of Eden (cf. Genesis 3:22). It culminates with heaven coming to earth for mankind to dwell with God in His garden forever (cf. Revelation 22).

This vast “story arc” brings us back to the verse that we referenced at the opening of this article (Matthew 1:1). Anyone familiar with ancient scribal arts will tell you that when you write in letters per hour instead of words per minute, you become very judicial with the words you choose to use, you have to convey more with less. Consequently, the Gospel writer’s indication that Jesus stands in line with David and Abraham was not a flippant choice—it was deliberate. With divine inspiration, Matthew squarely placed Mary’s Child in line with a series of promises made first to Abraham and then to David. The New Testament books of Romans and Hebrews lean heavily into these promises and their final realization in and through Jesus, specifically as the Messiah described in Old Testament prophecies.

The Hebrew word for Messiah is Mashiach (משיח) and first appears in Leviticus 4:3, “If the anointed [hammashiach] kohen sins so as to bring guilt on the people—then let him offer for his sin which he has committed, a young bull without blemish to Adonai for a sin offering.” Initially, the term referred only to priests and, later, kings who were anointed with a specific oil (mentioned in Exodus 31) in preparation for service. Through the centuries, this concept evolved. Abraham’s “family” went from an “Israelite religion”—primarily tribal and geographic—to an intensely monotheistic Judahite religion that saw the whole world as the domain of its God. Likewise, the transition of anointed ones to “the” anointed one also developed over time.

Isaiah 61:1 may be the most salient biblical text on this issue:

“The Ruach of Adonai Elohim is on me, because Adonai has anointed me to proclaim Good News to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.” 

Aside from the passage’s face value (i.e., “anointed” precedes redemptive works on behalf of exiles), it features prominently in the significant evolution of the messiah concept. How? Luke 4 describes Jesus reading it in a synagogue and claiming His life and mission fulfilled it (rather than applying to kings of prophets generally). In their Gospels, Matthew and Luke, in particular, went to great lengths to reveal Jesus of Nazareth as this promised Messiah to whom all rightly anointed figures in Israel’s history point.

Our line of questioning must shift: what makes this continuity between the Old and New so incredibly important?

Although the (decidedly Jewish!) Apostle Paul answered this question substantively throughout his epistle to the Romans, the most straightforward answer we can offer here is that “continuity” is essential to God’s character. After all, we insist that the biblical text is an expression of the divine life (cf. 2 Timothy 3:16). To negate this continuity between the Testaments is, on a meaningful level, to assail the faithfulness of God Himself. God made an eternal covenant with Abraham (cf. Genesis 17) as He did with David (cf. 2 Samuel 7). We fiercely hold to the divine self-disclosure, “For I am Adonai. I do not change” (Malachi 3:6). How could we echo this with any degree of conviction or intellectual integrity if He arbitrarily dismissed eternal covenants and superseded them with altogether different ones? No, throughout history, God has been proven faithful and true to His word. Beyond this, the New Covenant—established by the God of Israel in Jesus—is trustworthy precisely because in it, He did not abolish His previous covenants; instead, God included, enfolded, and fulfilled them in and through the New Covenant in Jesus. He is worthy of our worship!