Note:  As discussed in the previous article on the content of saving faith and the Crossless Gospel, Jesus was the "Christ" because of his atoning death and resurrection.  The Gospel of John claims that the first half of the book (the signs and miracles of Jesus) were written that one might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that believing, they might have life in his name.  (John 20:30-31).  But the word "Messiah" means "The Anointed One."  The word "Christ" is simply the Greek translation of this term.  And the only time within the Gospel of John that Jesus is "anointed" is by Mary of Bethany in John 12:1-7.  There, the passage gives the specific purpose of this anointing.  It was not anointing Him as king.  It was against his burial.  Therefore, requiring faith in Him as the Christ is an abbreviated equivalent to believing that He died for our sins and rose from the dead, and not a separate and unrelated doctrine.

Scripture gives two very distinct portraits of the Messiah.  The first is the suffering Messiah who is punished for the transgressions of mankind.  The second is the conquering Messiah, who will return in glory to rule the world to come.  This is, in essence, what separates Christians from Jews.  Christians believe there is one Messiah who is presented in two radically different depictions, a suffering Messiah, and a conquering Messiah, because there are two separate times in which he steps into human history.  Jews do not believe the role of Jesus as the suffering Messiah, and await only the conquering Messiah.  One can appreciate the need to reason with a Jew regarding the two distinct portraits of Jesus.  However, it is not reasonable that one should have to argue this point with a "Christian."  These two distinct portraits of the Messiah in his first and second comings are is so inextricably interwoven throughout the pages of Scripture, that anyone who is not a Jew and disputes this must be dismissed as a naysayer.  This exercise is not written to engage disputers in their folly.  It is written to assist seekers of truth to more accurately define the content of saving faith, that their presentation of the gospel may be clear and accurate, to the glory of Jesus Christ, and the salvation of mankind.  That the meaning of the term "Christ" in a salvation formula correlates to Jesus work as the Savior of mankind is therefore accepted as a fact within the following exercise.  No great labor will be set forth to prove this assertion in the face of naysayers.