Introduction: Context of 2 Corinthians 8
Paul's emphasis in this particular chapter is on helping those who have need. The churches of Judea had suffered a time of famine and there was a famine relief ministry. And so the apostle is soliciting funds here from Gentile churches to give to the churches in Judah so that they may be alleviated of the trials and the sufferings and the turmoil that they faced with their lack of resources. And Paul's exhortation here is twofold.
In the first place, he urges the Corinthians to persevere in what they had started in verses 10 and 11. And he gives two examples of Christian liberality. In the first place, the churches in Macedonia. Notice in verses 1 to 5, the churches in Macedonia did not have a lot.
They did not have great resources or great wealth or great riches, but what they had, they happily gave to alleviate the suffering of the churches in Judah. And then the second example, excuse me, is the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is found in verse 9, and this is our focus this evening. He says, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich. Again, it's an exemplary passage.
In other words, the Apostle is using Jesus Christ as an example to instigate or to promote within the Corinthians a sustained pattern of giving and liberality with reference to those churches in need. So the Macedonians serve as an example, and so does our Lord Jesus Christ serve as an example. But if we isolate this particular passage, and I don't mean isolate in the sense that it has no contextual reference, but if we look at this particular verse specifically, it is very instructive for the people of God as we come to remember our Lord in the supper. And
The Riches of Christ
I want to look first at the riches of Christ. Secondly, the poverty of Christ, and then thirdly, the redemptive benefits secured by Christ. Because that is essentially what Paul does. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich.
So I think those heads adequately outline the particular passage. Riches, poverty, and the benefits accrued by Christ in this act of poverty. But note in the first place, with reference to the richest, Paul says in verse 9, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul assumes that the Corinthians knew something about Christ.
Now, I think in the 21st century, that would be a difficult assumption to maintain. I'm not as convinced that everybody understands. I'm not talking about you, of course, but I'm talking about generally. I don't know that it's a granted or given assumption that people have this kind of Christology, that they understand something of the riches of Christ and the poverty of Christ, and that through Christ's poverty we become rich.
There's a great deal of Christian theology in this particular passage, and Paul assumed that the Corinthians knew it. Paul assumed that the Corinthians understood it, and it also shows us that the sublime mysteries of our Christian faith is the very bedrock for our practicality with reference to Christian life. In other words, orthodoxy, what we believe concerning Jesus, fuels our orthopraxy, how we function or behave with reference to Jesus. John Murray captures it this way.
He says, the simple logic is that the most transcendent mysteries of our holy faith. That's what's happening in 2 Corinthians 8-9, the riches of Christ and the poverty of Christ. We'll investigate that more fully in just a moment. But he says, the simple logic is that the most transcendent mysteries of our holy faith are the fountain springs of the most common and practical of Christian duties.
The streams of Christian liberality are fed from the ocean of the mysteries of God. See, we have it just the opposite today. Let's just be practical. Let's just do nice things like give.
We don't need to bog ourselves down with all of that doctrine and all of that detail and all of that theological precision. We just need to live the Christian life. Well, Paul's argument is, in order to live the Christian life, you need to know the Christ of the Christian life. And Paul assumes, or Paul takes for granted, that the people of God knew at least this much, that Christ was rich, He became poor, and that through His poverty, we have become rich.
There is, as I said, a great deal of Christology in verse 9, and the apostle assumes that the people of God understood this. Charles Hodge says, "...the fact referred to including the highest mystery of the gospel, namely, the incarnation of the Son of God, or the manifestation of God in the flesh, and the love therein manifested, is assumed to be known and acknowledged by all who call themselves Christians." In other words, we cannot turn our minds off from the study of theology. We, as God's people, must study theology. It is that which ultimately drives our Christian ethic and our practice.
Without a knowledge of Christ, as he's presented here, then we will not be liberal the way the Apostle Paul wants us to be. So the Macedonians serve as a great example, but so does the incarnation of our blessed Lord Jesus. I would indicate, or rather submit, that what is indicated here is an assumption of the knowledge of certain things among the Christian church that ought to be true today. The study of theology, attendance upon the means, a use of the Word of God, private study, family study, church study, all of that absolutely requisite so that we'll live the Christian life the way that God has called us to live the Christian life.
So that's the assumption in this section on the riches of Christ. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now notice he says that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor. Just focusing on the though he was rich.
Now, this points to what Christ is as God. It's not pointing to what he receives at the exaltation. We know that as covenant mediator, as prophet, priest, and king, we know that in that context of Matthew 28, Jesus says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. That's not what's in view here.
What's in view is the second person of the Trinity taking on our humanity. That's the movement. Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor. The movement here is the second person of the triune God taking on our humanity.
And when it comes to that reality, though he was rich, Christ as the second person of the triune God has always been. Christ as the second person of the triune God is the agent of creation. Christ as the second person of the triune God is instrumental in terms of providence. Paul tells us in Colossians that in him all things consist.
Those are the riches that are in view, the reality that He is, in fact, Almighty God. And so that He becomes poor is a great illustration to serve the point with reference to the Corinthians emptying their pockets and giving to those churches in need. Though He was rich, yet, for your sakes, He became poor. And it's intriguing because the grammar, the way the words are set, the way that the language is set forth is similar to what we find in John 1.
In fact, you can turn to John chapter 1. Technically, if you want the technical grammatical stuff, the participle in 2 Corinthians 8-9 points to what Christ is essentially, namely, that He's God. Same as John 1-1. Notice, in the beginning was the Word.
It's always the case. It's never been otherwise. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Now, notice in verse 14, and the Word who always was, the Word who was with God, the Word who was God, that Word, notice, became flesh.
The same movement is represented there in 2 Corinthians 8-9. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet, for your sakes, He became poor. He became something that He was not in order to redeem us from our sins. He left that place of prestige, He left that place of power, He left that pinnacle of glory, and He identified with us.
Brethren, it is mind-blowing when we consider the movement in 2 Corinthians 8-9, and when we see it here in John's prologue. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Verse 14, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glories as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. He, or rather what we find in 2 Corinthians 8-9, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, what he is essentially, he was and always will be rich.
The contrast is clear, he was rich, yet for your sakes, he became poor. Now, those riches obviously involve his position as the son of God, the second of the blessed Trinity. But as I said, creation, providence, He left all that to come here. I don't know that we always ponder that reality.
There's places you and I probably don't want to go, certain neighborhoods. I've got to tell you, and I think I have told you, every Tuesday morning when I unlock that gate and I drive around the building, I cringe a little bit. Because very often there's people sleeping at the back door. And they're typically not happy, nice people that you just give them a pillow. and a cup of coffee and off they go.
It's usually some sort of a, you know, confrontation, which I don't like. I don't like to say, look, you can't sleep here. This is a, you know, it's a private property and you have to go. There's things that we don't always like to do.
All right. Jesus left the pinnacle of glory to come here, to come to this world. to come and to mix with the rabble, to receive sinners and eat with them. You see what Paul's point is. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor.
He left that. He didn't divest himself of deity. Understand that. The old King James reading, with reference to Philippians 2, has unfortunately given a cause or rise to a theory called kenosis, that Christ emptied himself of deity.
That's not a good reading. I mean, it might be a good reading, but we need to make sure we understand what it means. The new King James renders it better. He humbled himself.
He doesn't empty himself of divinity. It's not the case that when Christ comes into the world, he stops being God. He is still the second person of the Trinity. He is still God Almighty, but he is now taking on our humanity.
He now assumes our humanity with all the essential properties and the common infirmities thereof, yet without sin. So Paul's point is that he left that place of glory, power, excellence, and eminence to come into this world, and that ought to affect the people of God.
The Poverty of Christ
Now notice the poverty of Christ. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor. Now, earlier I said, that Paul assumed a certain amount of Christian knowledge on the part of his readership. I'm going to do that right now.
The Hypostatic Union Defined
I'm going to assume that you all know what the hypostatic union is. Maybe that's not a great assumption, so I'll just tell you. The hypostatic union is that technical phrase which is applied to the person of Jesus Christ, that he's one person, two natures. He is the second person of the triune God, the second person of the Trinity who comes into the world and he takes on our humanity.
He assumes our humanity. with all the essential properties and all the common infirmities thereof, yet without sin." So we've got one Christ, two natures. One person, two natures. If you depart from that, you end up in heresy. He's not two persons.
He's not one nature. He's one person, two natures. That is absolutely, positively crucial for every Christian to believe. That's what the Bible teaches.
In fact, the Athanasian Creed, an early creed of the Christian Church, says this is the Catholic faith. Catholic there is not Roman Catholic with the Pope and the hat and the whole spiel. It means universal. This is the Catholic faith, which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved.
He cannot be saved. In other words, you cannot depart from this definitional principle of Christianity. One Jesus Christ, one person, two natures. Our confession explains it this way.
The Son of God, the second person in the Holy Trinity, being very and eternal God, the brightness of the Father's glory, of one substance and equal with Him who made the world, who upholds and governs all things He hath made, when the fullness of time was come, take upon him man's nature, with all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin." See, that's the glory of the gospel in terms of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. The second person of the Trinity did take on man's likeness, did take on man's humanity, did identify with us in such a way, yet without sin. Now, this morning in our time of the confession study, I had mentioned that often we say God incarnate when we refer to Jesus. Now, I would never say that's heretical because Jesus is God and Jesus is or was incarnate.
So to say God incarnate isn't necessarily heresy, but it's not necessarily the most precise way that we can describe it. We would say the second person of the Trinity became incarnate. Because when we think God is Christians, we are Trinitarian. God for us is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Well, the Father and the Spirit did not come in the Incarnation. They did not take on man's humanity or man's flesh. It is only the Son that does that. So again, You won't be run out of our church if you speak of God incarnate, but may I encourage you to pursue a more excellent way and speak like the Confession of Faith, reflecting accurately the Bible when it says that the second person of the Trinity did take on our humanity.
Again, I think John Murray's sermon on this particular text is most helpful. For those of you who have the collected writings of John Murray, his sermon here on 2 Corinthians 8-9 is beautiful. But listen to how he explains this. Again, we're looking at the movement from the glory of heaven, the preeminence of the Son, the second person of the Trinity as God, active in creation, active in the government of the world becoming poor for us.
Murray says, when he became man, he did not cease to be rich in his divine being, relations, and possession. Again, no kenosis. We do not believe that Christ divested himself of deity. He didn't stop being the second person of the Trinity.
He didn't stop being God when he took on our humanity. So, Murray again, when he became man, he did not cease to be rich in his divine being, relations, and possessions. He did not become poor by ceasing to be what he was, but he became poor by becoming what he was not. See, our glory is to be created in the image of God, and to be man, to be human over the animals.
I'm not dissing on the animals. Animals are great. They're wonderful. They're beautiful things, but we're better than them.
And we're better than them because we're created in the image of God. That's our glory. But Christ's poverty is seen, and that He takes on our humanity. Again, that's the movement that Paul envisages here.
He became poor by addition, not by subtraction. He added manhood to His immutable and eternal Godhood. And with reference to the hypostatic union, Augustine, in his treatment on the Trinity, says, the divinity is not changed into the creature so as to cease to be divinity, nor the creature into divinity so as to cease to be creature. The beauty of the hypostatic union is that God, the Lord Jesus Christ, maintains in this one person the glory of his divinity and the addition of his humanity.
And then Watson, one more quote and then we'll move on. Watson says this, that man should be made in God's image was a wonder, but that God should be made in man's image is a greater wonder. That the ancient of days should be born, that he who thunders in the heavens should cry in the cradle, that he who rules the stars should suck the breast, that a virgin should conceive, that Christ should be made of a woman and that of a woman and of that woman which he himself made, that the branch should bear the vine, that the mother should be younger than the child she bear, and the child in the womb bigger than the mother, that the human nature should not be God, yet one with God? That's the glory of the hypostatic union.
And brethren, it may sound like a bunch of theological stuff that, you know, it's better reserved for the academic guilds and all that sort of thing. But I guarantee you, take this from a pastor's heart, the more you understand this, the more happy you will be. the more joyful you will be, the more encouraged you will be, the more you will rejoice when you sing these hymns and songs of praise to God, the more comforted, the more stabilized, the more grounded, the more foundation. You see, the apostle appeals to something that the Corinthians should have known as the means by which to provoke them to give to the churches in Judea. I suggest that a proper understanding of who Jesus Christ is in his person, the one person, the two natures, will encourage you across the board.
I'm not suggesting you'll never have a downcast day. I'm not suggesting you'll never be melancholic. I'm not suggesting you won't go through the trials of depression. I'm not suggesting you'll never be hurt or hindered or harmed by anything in this world.
But to have that rock-solid foundation of who Jesus Christ is, is always a boon and a blessing for the people of God. So Paul the Apostle says, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor. The Lord Jesus is eternally God. The Lord Jesus did not give up a deity when he became man.
And the Lord Jesus is one glorious person in two natures. Please, that's the hypostatic union. It's a big word that's very easy to explain. Now, I'm not saying it's easy for us to sort of exhaust the meaning of that, but suffice to say the one person of Christ is two natures.
He's both divine and human.
Poverty Seen in His Life and Death
Now, I think specifically we ought to appreciate what He means by this, yet for your sakes He became poor. Certainly the incarnation is in view. certainly the enfleshment of the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, taking on man's nature with all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof. He takes on that humanity, and then what happens with reference to his life? I mean, certainly he's special, isn't he?
I mean, there's never been anyone like him. There had never been anyone like him at that particular time. So certainly the second person of the triune God comes down from heaven, and he assumes our humanity. He should be hailed.
He should be praised. He should be glorified. He should be loved. He should be honored.
But it's just the opposite. We see his poverty in his life. Not just financially, he was supported by the alms of others. Not financially in the sense that, you know, the foxes had their holes and the birds had their nests, but the son of man had nowhere to lay his head.
He had that poverty to be sure, but his whole life was one of poverty or impoverishment. The incarnation certainly was the beginning of it. The Lord Jesus took upon in man's nature. The humanity of Christ did not diminish or destroy his deity.
Gil says not that by becoming a man he ceased to be God or lost his divine perfections, though these were much hidden covered from the view of man. Not kenosis, not a removal, not a divestment, but it wasn't the case that Christ walked around every day shining bright lights and doing amazing things all the time. No! He did hide these things.
These things were obscure. He didn't always demonstrate these sorts of things in his earthly ministry. But in terms of his lowly life, it was prophesied that his life would be one of difficulty. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our face from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Isaiah 53.3, it's almost as if John the Apostle rehearses that in John 1 when he says he came to his own and his own received him not. We hid as it were our faces from him.
There was nothing in him that was beautiful. There was nothing in him that was calming. There was nothing in him that would attract us to him. This points to his poverty.
This points to his life of humiliation. This points to the lowliness that the Son of God had in this world. As I already referred to, Matthew 8, 20, foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. It's an amazing thing, isn't it?
And the very creator of heaven and earth. The very one in whom all things consist comes into this world, and instead of being praised and worshipped and glorified by creatures, foxes and birds had more in terms of temporal comfort than our Lord Jesus Christ did. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, Paul says. Though he was rich, essentially, in terms of his status as the second person of the Trinity, yet, for your sakes, he became poor.
He chose this. He took this on willingly. He embraced it. It wasn't like, oh, no, I don't want to go after them.
I don't want to do this. There was no reluctance on the part of the Son of God. Remember Jesus in that bit in John chapter four, where the disciples are concerned about food and what are we going to eat and all that sort of thing. And Jesus says, my meat is to do the will of him who sent me.
Do you know why Christ said that? Because none of us are able to say that. Isn't that right? We think about that.
We think about sin. We think about shame. We think about all the stuff that we do. Christ came because of that.
Brethren, if there was a way we could imbibe the principles of God, if there was a way we could ascend to God, if there was a way we could do what God calls us to do, then Christ died in vain. The cross was because we're wretched. We're polluted, we're evil, we're impure. The will of our Father we don't want to do.
All we like sheep, the prophet says, have gone astray. We have gone after our own things. There is none righteous, no not one. There is none who seeks after God, the apostle says.
Some say, well, you know, there's people all over the place. They're seeking God. Not the God of the Bible. We're not talking about idols.
We're not talking about somebody you fashion after yourself, who, apart from God's grace, seeks the God of grace. No one. Who wants that God? Nobody makes up a God who's holy, holy, holy.
Nobody makes up a God who's going to punish them for the very things that they love to do. The only way we come to embrace this God is through grace. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, essentially, yet for your sakes, He became poor. That poverty is on display in the pages of the Gospel narrative.
Matthew Poole says it this way, But I think that poverty of Christ comes to sharper focus, or not sharper, but sharpest focus in the sufferings and in the death of the Savior. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet, for your sakes, He became poor. In the incarnation, He took on our humanity. In His life, in terms of ministry, He had no place to lay His head.
He was not received by His own. He was by and large rejected by a mass of humanity at that particular time. Certainly he had his faithful, certainly he had his band of apostles, certainly he had a bit of an extended family of disciples, all that to be sure, but on the whole, on the main, he was rejected. It was prophesied by Isaiah and it's realized or brought to fruition in the gospel records, but that poverty is ultimately seen in terms of the cross.
The poverty of Christ is most clearly seen in his sufferings and death. Remember, Peter couldn't conceive of a dying Messiah. Remember that instance in Matthew chapter 16 where Jesus announces that he must go to Jerusalem, he must be tried, he must be executed, put to death by the hands of wicked men. What does Peter say?
Peter says, forbid it, Lord. There's no way. The concept of a crucified Messiah was just absolutely not in vogue at the time. That's why in 1 Corinthians 1, even after the crucifixion, even after the early church has been founded, even after the apostolic preaching, Paul tells us that we preach Christ crucified to the Jews what?
A stumbling block. I think I've told you before, there's a book on my shelf by Everett Ferguson. It's the backgrounds of early Christianity. And he has a little picture in there about a drawing that was found on the wall.
I think it was a jail or a prison of some sort. And it was a man with a donkey's head on the cross. Well, that was Jesus, according to the drawing there. That's how they conceived of or perceived a man that would be crucified.
He was not somebody to be worshipped. He was not somebody to be praised. He was not somebody to be adored and loved and feared and glorified and honored. He was a stumbling block. 1 Corinthians 1, 23.
That means what it says. He was a scandal. to the early Jews and remains such to this day. You see, brethren, the Apostle Paul highlights these things so that the Corinthians will be moved to action in terms of liberality.
Humiliation Traced in Philippians 2
The Apostle in Philippians chapter 2 traces the trajectory of Christ's humiliation. In fact, you can turn there. just to get another passage, another perspective, another observation with reference to this particular point. Philippians chapter 2 at verse 5, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. It's an amazing thing.
Some of these passages where Paul is telling us how to act like Christians, he uses the example of Jesus Christ, and it's some of the most lofty, glorious, wonderful Christology. Here specifically in Philippians chapter two, he wants the people of God, excuse me, to be unified. In fact, if you go back for just a moment in chapter 2 at verse 1, therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself.
Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Now that's pretty basic, isn't it? I think that's pretty common. We should live that way.
That's the way we should function. The fact that we're told and commanded to do this so many times in the New Testament really ought to cause us to reflect. We need to get better at some things. We need to shape up.
We have to continually be told to actually care about others. We have to be commanded not to be so self-absorbed. We have to be commanded not to be narcissists. And that's pretty pathetic, but I think it's absolutely appropriate.
I mean, just look at society. You think the problem of narcissism is confined? Everybody's a narcissist. I saw on a blog group of comments one time, somebody was really not happy with pastors and said, well, only narcissistic men pursue the pastoral ministry, men who love themselves.
You know, Narcissus was the guy who looked in the reflection in the water and couldn't leave. He was just so consumed with his reflection in the water. He just loved himself. He just looked in that mirror.
He just gazed with joy and contemplativeness at his own reflection. So this guy on a blog says, only narcissists pursue pastoral ministry. I'm not going to lie to you, brethren. I think I struggle with that.
But I don't think I'm alone. Actually, I don't wanna look at myself in the mirror. It's not the most pleasing activity. I typically try to get away from the mirror as soon as I can, but that's man's issue, isn't it?
We have to be told to esteem others as better than ourselves. Now, what's the example? And again, Christ isn't simply an example. We're not moralists, but Paul does hold him up here specifically to the Philippians.
Philippians 2.5, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. Again, I think the old King James has, but he emptied himself. And I think the translation is adequate or accurate, but the theology behind it has been grossly distorted. This idea of kenosis, he emptied himself or divested himself of deity.
Do not allow that thought for a moment. The glory of the incarnation is that he remains the second person of the Trinity. But he made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
Therefore, God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. There is that exaltation glory that Christ receives as the mediator of the new covenant. There's that, you know, exalted to the right hand of the father. But prior to that, he's in the form of God.
He did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. Again, not divesting or destroying the deity, but rather taking on the humanity. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes, he became poor. That poverty is seen in the incarnation, that poverty is seen in his lowly life, that poverty is seen in his sufferings and death.
Philip Hughes made this observation. He says, from highest heaven, he descended to Calvary in the grave. None was richer than he, none became poorer. he. So that's the riches of Christ, the poverty of Christ.
Redemptive Benefits Secured by Christ
Now let's look finally at the redemptive benefits secured by Christ. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich. Isn't that beautiful? That you through his poverty might become rich.
The benefactors are the elect of God. The benefactors are those believing the gospel. The benefactors are believers. That you through his poverty might become rich.
There's that bit in the Nicene Creed that is glorious to confess. It says, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven. Beautiful, who for us men and our salvation came down from heaven. That's what Paul means, that you through his poverty might become rich.
The Nicene Creed goes on, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. he suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father, and he shall come again with glory to judge the quick and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end. It's for us men and for our salvation that this one who was rich became poor, for your sakes, so that we, through his poverty, might become rich. Now,
Riches Defined: Ephesians 1–2
what are those riches? Those riches I think are spoken to or spoken of by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 1. He says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Those blessings are spoken of by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 1.
You may turn there. 1 Corinthians 1. Verse 30, but of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that as it is written, he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. So back to 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 9, when the apostle says that you through his poverty might become rich. We are rich men and women, brothers and sisters.
We need to ponder that. We need to contemplate that. We know that life can be tough. We know that there are challenges.
We know that there are difficulties. We know that at times, well, most of the time, all of the time, temporally, we're not rich. Temporally, a lot of us are, you know, seeking to make ends meet, and we don't have a lot in terms of this world's goods, but we have eternal riches. We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
Now, I know at times this is counterintuitive. We might be melancholic or we might be depressed and somebody will come along and say, well, you need to count your blessings. And everything in us rises up and says, I don't want to count my blessings. I want to be melancholic or depressed.
I don't want to be happy. I just want to be miserable. Brethren, listen to that kind hearted soul that tells you to count your blessings. We need to take a couple steps back, we need to properly survey the land, and we need to understand that we, through His poverty, have become rich, rich beyond measure.
Notice the Apostles' language in Ephesians chapter 1. Back there again, Ephesians chapter 1. Notice in verse 7, in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth in Him. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory, that riches of His grace." Notice in Ephesians 2, And you, chapter 2, verse 1, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
We were lifeless, we were helpless, we were hopeless. But notice in verse 4, but God, who is miserly in his mercy, sparing in his mercy, begrudging in his mercy. No, Ephesians 2, 4, but God who is rich in mercy. He doesn't just, here's a little bit of mercy for you.
He doesn't just sort of dull it out. He's not skimpy. He's not chintzy. He's not a cheapskate when it comes to this mercy.
But God who is rich in mercy because of his great love. You see, the apostle could just say mercy and love, couldn't he? I mean, that we get mercy from God is great. That we get love from God is great.
That's not enough to describe what we get. It's rich mercy and it's great love. He heaps it up. In fact, Paul the Apostle actually coined words to promote how glorious and benevolent God is.
He would take words and stick prepositions on them to make it that much better. Words that had never been coined before, not that they were completely unknown, but the putting together, as I said, of a preposition and a word to sort of highlight that it's not just this, it's this. It's not just a little bit, but it's but it's rich. It's it's great.
It's it's wonderful. But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Paul, are you trying to tell us something here?
Yes, Christian, I am trying to tell you that you have something far more excellent than you even know. Imagine for a moment that you collected coins, and you happen to have a coin in your collection that was worth something. You had no clue. And somebody who's in tune with such things surveys your collection.
He goes, wow, did you know you have that? Well, what do you mean? That's worth about $10,000. But it's a penny.
Yeah, but it's worth about $10,000. That whole collector thing just baffles me. that people would spend that much money on a penny or on a hockey card. I just don't get it. But there are people out there, and there is that value appended to that particular coin.
You'd be blown away, wouldn't you? I think as Christians, we have this view that, yeah, God saved me, and yeah, I'm going to heaven, but I just feel like he's not always really for me. He is for you. He is most loving.
As you've heard ad nauseum in this church, the doctrine of divine impassibility secures for us that statement in our confession that God is most loving. He doesn't increase because he can't. He's most loving. He doesn't get more loving to you.
It's not like at the end of the week you've done well, so his love units for you increase. That love never diminishes. It never evaporates. It never goes away.
God is most loving toward you, believer. Those are the riches you have in Christ Jesus. We take the specifics in terms of every spiritual blessing.
The Ordo Salutis Applied
I think a great grid is that ordo salutis presented by the apostle in Romans chapter eight. Those whom he foreknew, he predestined. Those he predestined, he called. He affectionately called us unto himself.
He granted us the graces of faith and repentance. He caused us, as we read this morning in John 3, to be born again. He gave us the repentance in order to have a change of mind about our sins that we see in Acts chapter 5. He gives us the faith that Paul will highlight in Ephesians chapter 2, 8 through 10, and in Philippians chapter 1, verse 29.
Paul says, it's been granted to you, not only to believe in Christ, but also to suffer for his name. Do you ever understand that? It's incidental that faith is a gift in Philippians chapter 129. The emphasis or the accent falls on the fact that God has begraced you with the privilege of suffering for Jesus.
The fact that faith and repentance are gifts are everywhere in the New Testament. Brethren, we've been given those things.
Justification, Sanctification, Glorification
We have been justified freely by His grace. We have gone through what Zechariah, the prophet, speaks of in Zechariah chapter 3. God willing, we'll read that in a couple Sunday nights from now. Remember Joshua, the high priest, standing before Yahweh, filthy, disgusting, vile, covered in vomit, covered in feces.
It's not just a little spot on his shirt, but rather he is absolutely undone. And God orders that those dirty clothes be torn off of him and then righteous clean robes placed on him. That's ours in the gospel. That's what you and I have.
Brethren, when I preach this, I get convicted that I don't always live in light of this, because I should have a smile on my face 24-7, understanding the doctrine of justification, that we are forgiven, and that we have been given a righteousness that avails with God, and it's received by faith alone, and that faith supplied by God Himself? And that's enough for all of us to just say, praise God forever and ever and ever, world without end. But it doesn't stop there. Sanctification, the fact that we are dying to our sin, not maybe like we want, not maybe as fast as we would desire, but we are.
John Newton says, I'm not what I ought to be. I'm not what I will be. By God's grace, I'm not what I once was. Brethren, praise the Lord for that.
We're rich in Jesus. We have different affections now, different desires. I mean, who would want to be in church twice and three times on a Sunday unless God had changed their heart, especially a church like this. There's no bongos, there's no guitar riffs, there's no celebration, there's no everybody doing a jig.
There's none of that at all. What brings us here? I mean, it might be a sense of duty and obligation, there might be a little bit of that, and that's not necessarily wrong. We are obliged and we have a duty to show up at church.
Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together, as is the custom of Psalm. That's a reality. But I like to think there's something even more basic, and that's, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go to the house of the Lord, because the Lord has changed our hearts. He has given us new affections.
He's given us a new will. He's given us a new desire. We have been justified freely by His grace. We are being sanctified by the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit, and we have glorification in our future.
We're going to a world where there is no more politics like we saw in the Sanhedrin this morning. Brethren, that kind of political machination that we see there in Acts 5 that is extant today is grieving, isn't it? When you see something so obvious that men love power, men crave power, men desperately want to silence the opposition, which oftentimes are Christian people that just want the right things, It really is frustrating to live in a world where there's such injustice, to live in a world where there's such ineptitude, but heaven isn't like that. Heaven is perfect.
Heaven is glorious. And one of the best things about heaven, well, the best thing, is that Christ is there, but we're going to be confirmed in righteousness. You and I are not going to sin when we go to heaven. Isn't that enough encouragement to make you get out of bed each day and say, praise God, I can't wait to go to heaven.
I don't necessarily want to get hit by a truck today, but I can't wait to go to heaven. The reality is, brethren, no more pain, no more suffering, no more sorrow, no more hunger, no more thirst, no more sin. No more fighting the flesh. No more.
We will be confirmed in righteousness, secured and stable forever and ever and ever, world without end. You see Paul's point. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes, he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich. The Macedonians gave out of their poverty, Christ gave out of his poverty as well, in an interesting sort of a way.
Hodge makes the observation in terms of the context. He says self-sacrifice is the proper test of love. In other words, these Corinthians ought to be giving based on what they have in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Application: Count Your Spiritual Riches
Well, brethren, I hope that we will appreciate, with reference to Christ, His glory, that He who was rich, for our sakes became poor, speaks to His glory, His magnificence, His excellence, and His majesty. As well, the riches we possess, I think John Gill sort of summarizes everything I tried to present, that they through His poverty might be rich, Not in temporals or temporals, not in the stuff of this age. There's nothing wrong with having stuff. God's not about living in huts or wearing hair shirts or having a nice bowl of soup and putting ashes in it.
God is not pro-monkery. God is not calling you to suffer 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. That's just not the conception of God that you ought to have. I mean, this looks like a great steak.
I should burn it or I should put ashes on it so I don't enjoy it. No, no, no, no. God's not like that. But the reality is, brethren, we're not rich in temporals.
He goes on to say, but in spirituals, and by Christ's obedience, sufferings, and death, in his lowest state, he has paid all their debts, wrought out a robe of righteousness, rich and adorned with jewels, with which he clothes them, and through his blood and sacrifice has made them kings and priests unto God. That's a beautiful, beautiful summary of the riches that we possess in our Lord Jesus Christ. So brothers and sisters, we need to be encouraged. We need to be a joyful people.
Again, we will have melancholy, we will have depression, we will have darkness. we will have sorrows, we will have difficulties, but somewhere along the line, we need to stop, we need to listen to our counselors, and we need to count our blessings. We need to consider these riches. We need to contemplate justification, sanctification, and glorification. We need to contemplate the glory of Jesus Christ.
We need to understand that the one who was rich became poor for us, that we, through his poverty, might become rich. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank You for Your Word, and we thank You for all of the theology in such a short span of words in 2 Corinthians 8-9. We thank You for our Lord Jesus, we thank You for what He undertook on our behalf, and we thank You for the great riches that we possess in and through and because of Him. We ask for Your continued blessing upon us, and we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.