January 8, 2006

THE RICH BECAME POOR

2 Corinthians 8:9

 

   "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that [we] through His poverty might be rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9). What a motive for Christian giving. Paul had first mentioned the sacrificial giving of the saints of Macedonia, whose poverty was so deep that they had to beg Paul to accept their collection. Next he has reminded the Corinthians how greatly and exceptionally they had been enriched by God with spiritual gifts beyond the scope and variety of every other church. They abounded with spiritual enablements for their ministry to Jews in their area. In addition, they were a rich church.

   Yet all pales when compared to the giving of our loving God, Who "so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son," that "God...is rich in mercy for the great love wherewith He loved us..."

   Paul admonished them to "prove the sincerity of their love," and told of the sincerity of Christ's love. He was rich and owned by right of creation "the heavens and the earth and all that in them is" (Ex. 20:11). "For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills... For the world is Mine, and the fulness thereof" (Psa. 50:10,12). Yet this One, with inestimable riches, "became poor." How poor? He was poor in His birth and poor as a man. He borrowed everything. He never had a garment or ship, a lunch or a penny, a donkey or an upper room nor even a new tomb. He was poorer than the foxes and fowls. He crawled as a worm in the dust, was given a crown of thorns, a cup of gall and vinegar and laid down His very life, all "for our sakes."

   He was poor that we might be rich, tempted that we might be victorious, homeless to provide us an eternal home, hungry that we might be forever satisfied, thirsty that we might drink the water of life freely, weary that we might rest forever, lonely that we might never be lonely, a Man of sorrows that we might be joyful forever, forsaken that we might never be forsaken, made sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He died that we might live, and asks us also to give proving the sincerity of our love.

 

Ivan L. Burgener