Immediately following the baptism at Jordan, and before the commencement of His public ministry, we have the

genealogy of the Saviour set out in detail in Luke 3:23-38. Where Matthew's purpose is satisfied to trace the

pedigree of the Lord back to Abraham; Luke, the faithful worker with Paul, traces it back to Adam. Matthew gives

us Joseph's line and this goes back through Solomon and David. Luke however gives us Mary's line and this goes

back through Nathan and David. The presence of Salathiel in both genealogies, suggests that a marriage took place

about the time of the Babylonian captivity, when it was said of Jechoniah not one of his sons should sit upon the

throne. Both Joseph and Mary were of the lineage of David. The Devil's attack through the villainy of Jechoniah

was overruled. Christ was still of the seed of David, but through the diversion to Nathan's descendants, He became

also the seed of the woman who should bruise the serpent's head. We also read that `Jesus Himself began to be

about thirty years of age' and the fourth chapter of Numbers says seven times over, that those who entered into the

ministry of the tabernacle did so `From thirty years old and upward'. We can readily believe that the child of twelve

Who amazed the doctors in the temple could have commenced His ministry then, but He waited patiently and only

broke silence or commenced to preach when His hour had come, and this He referred to as coinciding with His

anointing by the Spirit of the Lord.

Let us now turn our attention to the verbal connexion established in the original Scriptures between the

Anointing, the Spiritual gifts and the title `The Christ'.

Chrio to anoint, as we have seen gives us Christos The Anointed, and which in its turn is the equivalent of the

Hebrew Messiah, and includes the threefold office of prophet, priest and king.

Chrisma:

`Ye have an unction (Chrisma) from the Holy One, and ye know all things'.

`The anointing (Chrisma) ... ye need not that any man teach you ... the same anointing teacheth you of all things'

(1 John 2:20,27).

This supernatural gift of knowledge is included in the `spiritual gifts' of 1 Corinthians 12:

`There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit ... to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another

the word of knowledge by the same Spirit ... for as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the

members of that one body, being many, are one body: SO ALSO IS CHRIST' (1 Cor. 12:4-12).

If this refers to our Lord, Who is Head of the body the church, it does not seem to follow the apostle's argument; he

is all the while speaking about the gifts of the Spirit, and diversity in unity is well illustrated by the human body.

`The Christos' here refers, not to our Lord, but to the `anointed' body of believers, who by their anointing had many

other gifts beside `knowing all things' that John speaks of in his first epistle. From the conception and birth of the

child `Jesus' to the moment when He through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, every step of

His way, every decision He made, the words He spoke, the miracles He wrought, His estimate of the Old Testament

Scriptures, was under the leading and sanction of the Holy Spirit.

Both the final `offering' and the lifelong freedom from all `spot' are guaranteed by the Spirit that was given

without measure unto Him. Let it be remembered, that if His redeemed people have been slow to recognize the

complete voluntary self-emptying of the Son of God, the devil was fully aware of its significance and importance,

for His first temptation was that of accomplishing something in the strength of His own inherent Godhead, an attack

upon the very purpose of the Incarnation. However much we may wish to know the inner secrets of this `mystery of

Godliness' they are Divinely hid from our eyes. When He emptied Himself, the wisdom, knowledge and power that

were His by right were held at His disposal by the Holy Ghost, and given to Him at those crises in His ministry that

demanded them. Even after He had been raised from the dead, `until the day in which He was taken up', He had

through the Holy Ghost given commandments unto the apostles whom He had chosen (Acts 1:2). His miraculous

birth, with its accompanying freedom from all taint of Adam's transgression, is attributed to the power and

overshadowing of the Holy Ghost. His opening ministry, commission and proclamation, were directly associated

with the coming of the Holy Ghost upon Him. His subsequent miracles were definitely attributed to the power of

the Holy Ghost, even as His final act of complete self-surrender on the cross of Calvary, was offered `through the

eternal Spirit'. `No man knoweth the Son, but the Father' (Matt. 11:27), and all speculation is unwarranted and

approaches blasphemy.