Joel M Bradshaw

 9For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.–2 Corinthians 8

Paul had been making a collection amongst the churches to be able to provide relief for another church facing a dire situation. And the poor Macedonians had given generously. Paul brought this fact up to the relatively wealthier Corinthians to urge them to give. Along the way, he dropped this theological truth in verse 9. Let’s ask some straightforward questions about it. First, John 1 helps us…

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-2, 14)

1. HOW WAS JESUS RICH? Jesus is unique, because he is the Word become flesh. So, in Trinity terms, think God the Son who became flesh in the person of Jesus. God is in terms of Paul’s analogy rich.
2. HOW DID JESUS BECOME POOR? So in terms of God the Son, who always was with God the Father from the beginning (John 1:1), he became poor as he became also human in the person of Jesus.
3. WHAT ABOUT US? What was Paul saying to the Corinthians (and preserved also for us)? For your sake. If the Son of God didn’t take flesh, no sacrifice for sin would be possible. So Jesus had to be fully man. Only a perfect sacrifice would suffice, so Jesus needed to also be fully God. He died in our place, thus his sacrifice was substitutionary. We go from poverty to richness not in the sense of God lowering himself to take flesh, but in the sense of we now have a heavenly destiny in Christ that we didn’t before. The Son of God lowered himself for us in order to make it possible to be with him. That seems like the analogy Paul was using.

This is not us becoming Gods, because of the word Paul used: grace. This is God choosing to give grace to the ones he was saving. We who on our own were hopeless and destitute in the poverty of our sins now have hope not only of forgiveness, but reconciliation. Eternal life with God is our future. There is nothing richer than any of that!

Let’s close this pondering with Philippians 2 (with emphasis).

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:1-11)

Have a nice Friday.–JMB