You can turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 8. 2 Corinthians 8. Our focus will be on verse nine. This morning, we looked at the prophet Isaiah and a prophetic announcement concerning the coming King, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah sent by God to redeem his people from their sins. That was prophetic announcement tonight.
We'll look a bit more at the theology of the incarnation. The apostle sets that forth in verse nine. Now I should tell you that the context is the apostle exhorting the Corinthians to being benevolent, to being liberal, not in terms of their political bent, but in terms of their pockets, in terms of their wallets, in terms of their checkbook. There were suffering churches that stood in need, and so the Apostle encourages the Corinthian church to be liberal in their giving to those in need.
He uses two specific examples. He shows the liberality of the churches in Macedonia in verses 1 to 5, and the liberality of our Lord Jesus Christ in verse 9. So that's the context. The apostle is encouraging cheerful giving on the part of God's church.
But as I said, we're going to hone in specifically on the theology of the Incarnation. in verse 9, but I'll read the chapter and then we'll pray. So beginning in chapter 8 at verse 1. Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia, that in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality. For I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing, imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.
And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God. So we urge Titus that as he had begun, so he would also complete this grace in you as well. But as you abound in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all diligence, and in your love for us, see that you abound in this grace also. I speak not by commandment, but I am testing the sincerity of your love by the diligence of others.
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. And in this I give advice. It is to your advantage not only to be doing what you began and were desiring to do a year ago, but now you must also complete the doing of it, that as there was a readiness to desire it, so there also may be a completion out of what you have. For if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have.
For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may supply their lack, that their abundance also may supply your lack, that there may be equality. As it is written, he who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack. But thanks be to God who puts the same earnest care for you into the heart of Titus. For he not only accepted the exhortation, but being more diligent, he went to you of his own accord.
And we have sent with him the brother whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches. And not only that, but who was also chosen by the churches to travel with us with this gift, which is administered by us to the glory of the Lord himself and to show your ready mind, avoiding this, that anyone should blame us in this lavish gift, which is administered by us, providing honorable things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men. And we have sent with them our brother, whom we have often proved diligent in many things, but now much more diligent, because of the great confidence which we have in you. If anyone inquires about Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker concerning you.
Or if our brethren are inquired about, they are messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ. Therefore, show to them and before the churches the proof of your love and of our boasting on your behalf. Amen. Well, let us pray.
Our Father in heaven, we pray for the ministry and the aid now of the Holy Spirit as we consider the incarnation of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. What a great and wondrous event, what a glorious event, when heaven came down, as it were, to bless earth. And we ask God in heaven that you would guide our thoughts now which would cause us to think clearly concerning not only Christology, but the doctrine of the Trinity, and help us to see that this is in fact the true and the living God, one glorious God, who exists eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And again, forgive us for all sin and everything that darkens our understanding, and we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Introduction
Well in this particular example, or passage rather, Christ is being used as an example. Now that's not always the way we treat the Lord Jesus. It is the case that he came to make atonement, to make sacrifice for sin. But the biblical authors do at times point to him in an exemplary fashion.
In other words, Corinthians give. give liberally, give heartily, like the churches in Macedonia, and give liberally and give heartily, like our Lord Jesus Christ. His life was one of giving. His life was one of a deposit. His life was one of provision and blessing others.
And so the Apostle captures that very clearly in verse 9. 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. So I want to look first at the riches of Christ and then secondly at the poverty of Christ. What does the apostle mean by using this terminology or by using this language?
So let's jump first into the riches of Christ, but before we unpack that,
The Corinthians' Doctrinal Foundation
notice how the apostle appeals to the Corinthian church. If I were to ask you, with reference to the churches in the New Testament, what was Corinth like? Corinth was pretty messed up in a whole host of ways. If you've read through 1 Corinthians, for instance, you know they had issues.
They had a case where a man had his father's wife, and instead of the church disciplining him or dealing with him, they were arrogant about it. You have that instance where the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 has to admonish the Corinthians to flee from sexual immorality, to admonish them not to join themselves with harlots. And then you get into that section where they're dealing with Christian liberty and meat offered up to idols and those sorts of things. And then in to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, you've got issues concerning headship and authority in the context of the local church.
And then of course, 1 Corinthians 11 as well, the apostle has to correct their misconduct at the Lord's supper. So the Corinthians were not the perfect church. I've always been intrigued by people who say, we need to get back to the early church. Which early church do you mean?
Do you mean Corinth? Because if you do, you may not like how that all fleshes itself out. But with reference to the Corinthians, though they had these practical issues, though they had these practical problems, they had good theology. They understood Christology and the apostle Paul appeals to that.
Notice how he begins his statement in verse nine. He says, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. This was not foreign information to them. This was not stuff that they had no connection with.
What the apostle sets forth in verse nine concerning the incarnation of our Lord, vis-a-vis his riches and his poverty, such that the people he came to benefit would be rich, They knew, they understood, they had an appreciation and an appropriation of Christian doctrine. Charles Hodge says, the fact referred to, including the highest mystery of the gospel, specifically 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 called themselves Christians. So they couldn't have said, well, you know, Paul, this is theology that we're not really calculated to receive. We're not bright bulbs and therefore we can't really understand.
No, Paul appeals to something that they knew. So as we look at the New Testament documents, as we consider the early church, they were doctrinally sound. They understood the Trinity. They understood Christology.
They understood the hypostatic union. They understood the incarnation of our Lord. This underscores for us the importance of the public means of grace. As I mentioned to you before, at the time of the writing of 2 Corinthians, there wasn't a New Testament bound alongside of an Old Testament.
It wasn't as if the Corinthians all had Bibles in their laps the way that Chilliwackians do. The Corinthians depended on an earnest ministry in their local church to instruct them concerning theology proper, to instruct them concerning the one true and living God. And in that one divine and infinite being, There are three subsistences or persons, the Father, the Son or Word, and the Holy Spirit. They would have been instructed in these things in the context of the church.
This anti-doctrinal mindset that is still rampant to this day in our churches is absolutely contrary to the spirit and ethic of the New Testament. The early churches were doctrinal. The early churches were instructed. The early churches valued the public means of grace, because while they didn't have sermon audio, while they didn't have banner of true trust, while they didn't have Presbyterian and Reform, while they couldn't order books off Amazon.ca or .com, they had their church.
And when they went to their church, their pastors preached the word. Their pastors taught them the truth and their pastors put that food out there and the sheep ate it. And the sheep were able to follow and the sheep received it. So the importance of the public means of grace.
As well, for those of us living in this 21st century, when there is a great availability of resources, there's really no excuse for us to not know the things that Paul says in verse 9. 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. I'd like to think that you already have a good understanding of the passage and where we're going to go in the exposition. But I suspect there are Christians out there, I suspect there are churches out there, and I suspect there are pastors out there that don't know this. that don't have this equipment, that don't have this competency, that don't have this ability for the apostle to appeal to them and say, for you know what I'm about to tell you and how it relates in the manner of giving liberally to the churches that are in need.
As well, we ought to see and value a ministry that provides this kind of teaching, this kind of instruction, this kind of doctrinal truth. It is not the case that we are trying to find elders or pastors who are simply, you know, pep squad leaders. I don't even know if you guys know what a pep squad is. It was the Friday night football games in high school where you had the pep squad who fired everybody up so that they would root for the home team.
That's not what pastors are supposed to be. They're not supposed to be CEOs. They're not supposed to be managers. They're not supposed to be guys that are, you know, savvy in everything other than preaching the Word of God.
The Apostle says clearly in 2 Timothy 4, 2, preach the Word, be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and teaching. He doesn't say, oh, I want you to just be the gregarious guy that has coffee with everybody, or be the Fortune 500 guy that's able to manage small group. That's not the point.
The point of the Christian ministry is to proclaim the word in such a way that there are appeals like this, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. This shouldn't be new information. This shouldn't shake your world. This shouldn't rock you.
This shouldn't be something that you go, wow, I never knew that. Rather, you should see how it applies in terms of the specific contextual emphasis of the apostle in this instance. And then as well, before we move on,
Right Doctrine Produces Right Practice
The importance of right doctrine for right practice. If we don't think God's thoughts after Him, we're not going to live in a manner that He calls us unto. I'd like to say as a Reformed Baptist Church, with a good robust confession of faith and doctrinal instruction and biblical exposition, it's still hard to live in a manner that's consistent with the gospel of our salvation, right? It's not easy to be holy.
It's not easy to be godly. It's not easy to be righteous. And we have the mental faculties provided to us in order to comply. Imagine having no doctrine.
Imagine having no orthodoxy. How could there be orthopraxy or right practice when there's not right thinking about who God is? So we need to think biblically in order to live in a manner that is consistent with that biblical thought.
The Riches of Christ
Now note the content of what he appeals to. So again, the riches of Christ. He says, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, that though he was rich, he is speaking concerning the preexistent state of our Lord Jesus. Preexistent according to his humanity.
Christ as the second person of the Trinity has always been. From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. That applies to the divine essence, it applies to the three subsistences that each have that divine essence. So the riches of Christ that Paul is appealing to here is the reality that Jesus is, in fact, the Son of God.
That Jesus is, in fact, God the Son. That Jesus is, in fact, the second person of the Trinity. So he's going to move from that to the incarnation to establish riches and poverty, and it's through that poverty that you yourselves have become rich. So what's the practical implication for the Corinthians?
Imitate Jesus. Take your riches, give it to those who are impoverished, so that they, like you, can be blessed and increased in terms of their riches. So the Apostle says, or the Apostle uses what's called a participle here. He says, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, and the participle points to what Jesus is essentially, second person of the Trinity.
He was and always will be rich as he is God. Notice the contrast. He was rich, he became poor. He was rich, he became poor.
He never became rich. Now there is a sense, in terms of the mediatorial glory, in terms of the God-man, his exaltation to the right hand of the Father, where he reigns over the messianic kingdom, there is that exaltation, but Paul isn't pointing to that. He's not pointing to Matthew 28. He's pointing to the reality of the Trinity.
He is pointing to the reality of the second person of the Trinity, that though he was rich. One man says, he says, being and not having been. Lest it seem that Christ lost his spiritual riches when he assumed poverty. For he assumed this poverty in such a way that he did not lose those inestimable riches.
That's the thing we need to take away from our study here. The incarnation did not diminish the divinity of Jesus Christ. The incarnation did not suspend the divinity of Jesus Christ. The incarnation left the second person of the Trinity intact vis-a-vis his divinity, but he assumed our humanity.
He took on our humanity. There was that union of the natures in the one person. Now turn to John chapter 1. I know we've been there recently, but this is a parallel passage.
John chapter 1 shows a similar flow. He was one thing and he became another thing. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus that though he was rich, he was in the state of being rich. It wasn't that he had been rich, but he was in the state of having been rich and he does not lose those riches.
Rather, again, he assumes this poverty and the poverty is in the incarnation. Notice the identification of the Word. Verse 1, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That Word is further described or told us in verse 14, the Word became flesh.
And as we looked at recently, I think you've seen that Jesus is in fact the Word. The Word is, according to verse 1, co-eternal, distinct from, and consubstantial with the Father. That means He's one in being or one in substance with the Father. The Word is the one through whom all things are made.
Notice in verse 3, all things were made through Him, the Word. And without Him, nothing was made that was made. So John puts Jesus on the side of Creator. He doesn't put Him on the side of creation.
He puts Him on the side of Creator. There's Creator, there's creature. Jesus is Creator. And then notice that this Word, according to verse 10, was in the world.
The Word that was in the beginning, the Word that was with God, the Word that was God, according to verse 1, comes into this world according to verse 10. This is an amazing thing. This is glorious. This is wondrous.
This is absolutely fantastic. Typically, man tries to reach God. In the Christian gospel, God comes to man. God seeks and saves that which is lost.
It's not us going after him, it's him coming after us in a mission of redemptive mercy and benefit. So you've got the Word who is co-equal with the Father, distinct from the Father, or co-eternal and co-equal with the Father, comes into the world in verse 10, and He does so the way that verse 14 describes. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Now notice the parallel.
He was in the beginning with God. He was God. He became flesh in the incarnation. He assumed our humanity with all of the essential properties and the common infirmities thereof, and yet without sin.
So that's the same sort of statement that the apostle Paul is making in 2 Corinthians 8-9. He says, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, Though he is in the state of being rich, he goes on to say, yet for your sakes he did what? He became. He became something that he was not in order to save us from our sin.
And so when we go back to verse 9 in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, the riches are seen specifically in two aspects.
Riches: The Divine Nature
First, the divine nature. The Lord Jesus Christ, as I've said, is the second person of the Trinity and therefore very God of very God. The riches do not point to what He is by virtue of His exaltation to the right hand of the Father after His work of redemption. but it points to the divine nature, His very being. The references to His pre-existence and the poverty is seen in the incarnation and in the state of humiliation.
You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, The divine nature is underscored. John Gill says, in the perfections of his divine nature, having the fullness of the Godhead in him, all that the Father has and so equal to him, such as eternity, immutability, infinity, and immensity, omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence, in some Everything true of God is true of the Son of God. Again, in this divine and infinite being, there are three subsistences, each having the whole divine essence, yet the essence not divided. It's not that it's shared, 33 and a third percent, 33 and a third percent, 33 and a third percent.
That's not the doctrine of the Trinity. So back to this particular statement, that though He was rich, the divine nature, but as well divine works.
Riches: Divine Works
Jesus is responsible for creation. Think about this appeal. He says to the Corinthians, you've got fellow churchmen that are suffering. You've got fellow churchmen that are hurting.
You've got fellow churches that are suffering under bad economic policy, whatever place they happen to live in. They don't have enough food. They don't have enough water. They don't have enough good gifts.
Be like those churches in Macedonia. They didn't have a lot, but what they had, they gave. Be like the Lord Jesus Christ that was rich, rich according to the divine nature, but rich in terms of works. He's the creator of all things.
Colossians 1.17 tells us he's responsible for the government of all things. Just like we saw in Isaiah 9.6, the government shall be upon his shoulders. Christ is sovereign at the right hand of God most high. So it's not only the divine nature, but it's the divine works, creation, providence, and redemption.
So the apostle appeals to the Corinthians by saying, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich.
The Poverty of Christ
Now let's look secondly at the poverty of Christ. Yet for your sakes, he became poor that you through his poverty might become rich. Again, the same trajectory. that you have in the prologue, he was with God, he was God, but he becomes flesh. He was rich, but for your sakes, he became poor.
The language is a referent. to the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our confession speaks concerning this truth. We call it in theology, the hypostatic union. I know you've heard this several times over the last year.
Hopefully you'll hear it several times over the next several years, because it's absolutely crucial. So that the apostle could say to us, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, Yet for your sakes He became poor. And we wouldn't scratch our heads and wonder, what's He talking about? What's He suggesting?
What's He saying? So you have in the prologue and you have here what we refer to as the hypostatic union. Our confession describes 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 has made, did, 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, being conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the Holy Spirit coming down upon her, and the power of the Most High overshadowing her.
And so was made of a woman of the tribe of Judah, of the seed of Abraham and David, according to the Scriptures, so that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion. Which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man." That's Paul's point. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes, he became poor. Augustine makes this observation in his treatise on the Trinity.
He 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. In other words, the two natures remain, as the Confession states, distinct, united together, inseparably, in the one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in terms of just the beauty of it, we'll move from Augustine to Watson. Watson says that man should be made in God's image was a wonder.
And it is, right? That we're made in God's image is a wonder. You talk about the sin of abortion. You talk about the sin of euthanasia.
What is that? It's an assault upon the image of God. You talk about the drive-by shooting. You talk about the fentanyl overdoses.
You talk about the wholesale, the lack of concern for human life is ultimately an assault upon the image of God. So back to Watson, 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 of that woman which 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 is, again, glorious stuff that should cause our hearts to leap. Now in terms of this, what the Apostle says very clearly is that Jesus is eternally God.
That Jesus is eternally rich. that in the Incarnation, He does this, He impoverishes Himself for us men and for our salvation. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes, He became poor. Yet for your sakes, He became poor. Again, the appeal in terms of the context should have been having, or should have had the Corinthians writing massive checks.
Should have had the Corinthians pulling out their wallets and throwing money into the plate. I mean, this is such a grand appeal in terms of a very common practice in the context of the church of the Lord Jesus. Look at Jesus Christ and His riches and His poverty and the fact that it was for you. And as a result of that, you need to give, Paul says, to the churches that are in need.
Again, this is not Christianity that is unique to the 1689 Confession of Faith. In that statement that I read, which comes from chapter 8, paragraph 2, it reaches back to Nicaea, it reaches back to Chalcedon, it reaches back to the various creeds and confessions in the Church when theology meant something, when persons actually cared to know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. when they actually wondered about the incarnation and the hypostatic union and the doctrine of the Trinity and Christology. Brethren, just to have an interest in that today is a good thing, but better to actually read good books and hear good sermons instructing you concerning these particular truths. Because when it's all boiled down in its final analysis, do you know what separates us from the heathen?
It's what we believe. It's whom we believe. It is the object of our faith that is absolutely paramount. And if we do not know that object, if we do not know that Christ, if we do not understand the doctrine concerning Him, our faith is going to be misplaced.
Especially when it comes to challenge, when somebody challenges you. When a Jehovah's Witness knocks on your door, and he tells you, he ridicules the doctrine of the Trinity, or he suggests that Jesus is a creature, or that Jesus is a little g-god, what do you do? Do you just stand there and go, uh, well, I think you're wrong. You need to be able to respond to that.
The apostle, Jude rather, tells us specifically that he writes to us, he wanted to write concerning their common salvation, but I found it necessary to write to you, to exhort you, to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. Brethren, especially now, and I'm sure every preacher in every generation has been able to say that, but especially now, we need to know our stuff. The Christian faith is under attack. The Christian faith is under assault.
Brethren, Bill C-4 basically tells you it's wrong for a hetero to try to convert a transsexual, but it's perfectly acceptable for a transsexual to try to convert a hetero. And when it comes to the Bible, it's just myth, it's just fabrication, it's just old and antiquated, and it's something that should be cancelled. Brethren, these things hit close to home. Abortion, euthanasia.
How in the world can the Church of Christ fight these battles without knowing Scripture? Without the Apostle being able to appeal to a particular local church saying, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. They shouldn't have all had to scratch their heads and say, what's he talking about? What do you mean Christ is rich?
What do you mean Christ became poor? This is crucial stuff and this is the Catholic faith. And by Catholic, I don't mean Roman Catholic. Catholic means universal.
This is what the church through its ages has always confessed. This is the Athanasian Creed after summarizing the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. It says, this is the Catholic faith, which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved. He cannot be saved.
Now you might think that's a bit of a stretch. We're not saved based on our doctrinal integrity. No, we're not. It's belief in our Lord Jesus Christ.
But again, it's belief in our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's a Christ not according to our own making. It's not a Christ according to our own figment. It's not a Christ that we like, but it's the Christ of Holy Scripture.
Jesus says very clearly and unequivocally in John's gospel in chapter eight, if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins. And there, I believe, he goes back to the bush of Exodus 3.14. When he says, I am, he is equating himself with the Father. He is putting himself on par with Yahweh.
And he says, if you do not believe that I am, then you will die in your sins. It is crucial that we understand this doctrine. So you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though He was rich, divine nature, divine works, yet for your sakes He became poor.
Poverty: The Incarnation
That refers in the first place again to the incarnation. The incarnation, when He assumed our humanity, when he took on our humanity with all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof, and yet without sin. You see it in Matthew's gospel, chapters 1 and 2. You see it in Luke's gospel, chapters 1 to 3.
Basically, you see the nativity scene there. You see the referent in John 18 when the Lord Jesus says to Pontius Pilate, for this cause I was born. You see it in the epistles that Jesus came from the Lion or tribe, the tribe of Judah and the Lion specifically of David. He was true humanity.
He took on our man, he took on our humanity. Now, in the humanity of Christ, or rather taking on the humanity of Christ, did not destroy or diminish his deity. It did not destroy or diminish his deity. Now, it didn't blaze and it wasn't as obvious in terms of full glory when he's, you know, toddling around the kitchen table, but nevertheless, he was never devoid of his divinity.
John Gill says, not that by becoming man, he ceased to be God or lost his divine perfections, though these were much hid and covered from the view of man. The King James Bible in Philippians chapter two translates a word there as he emptied himself. I think the new King James gets it better. Now, that's not a dig on the King James.
I gave my thoughts on the King James. I think it's a wonderful translation. I think it's a wonderful Bible. If I was king for a day, I would make every Christian read it at least once through.
I'd make every non-Christian read it at least once through. This is why I'll never be king for a day. But with reference to that translation, it tells us in Philippians 2 that he emptied himself. He emptied himself, and theologians in the history of the church have taken that to mean that he divested himself of his divinity.
He separated his divinity. There's no divinity in our Lord Jesus. That's not the point in Philippians 2. In Philippians 2, the point is the hypostatic union.
According to man, he's a bondservant, but he has the form of God. There's divinity, there's humanity in the one person. And so with reference to the incarnation, he never ceased being God. That can't happen.
God can't stop being God. God can't divest himself of Godhood. God can't do something that denies God. It's just an impossibility.
Now we sang either tonight, no, we sang it this morning. Christ by highest heaven adored, Christ the everlasting Lord. Late in time behold Him come, offspring of the Virgin's womb. Veiled in flesh the Godhead see.
Hail the incarnate Deity, pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel. So the riches, divine nature, divine works. The poverty, incarnation. But
Poverty: The Lowly Life
not only incarnation, you have the lowly life. This was prophesied by Isaiah in chapter 53. He says, He is despised and rejected by man, 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. That's the poverty of Jesus. Here is the second person of the Trinity. He comes to his own and his own receive him not.
Well, it was prophesied that that would take place. It was prophesied that that would be the condition or the case, but it was experienced by our Lord Jesus in Matthew's gospel, other places as well, but in Matthew 8 20. He says, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor through the incarnation and through his lowly life.
But then thirdly,
Poverty: Sufferings and Death
that poverty comes to fruition in the sufferings and death of the Lord of glory. So Paul says, yet for your sakes he became poor. So the mission of the Redeemer, in terms of incarnation, in terms of lowly life, in terms of suffering and death, is for the sake of those whom the Father had given Him. just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. The Father chose a lot of miserable, wretched, disgusting sinners and gave them to His Son.
The Son bans, or rather covenants, to be their surety. He takes on our humanity. He lives in our stead. He dies in our stead.
And then He's raised again the third day. And this is where in His poverty is seen. And in terms of the sufferings and the death, the Apostle Peter, for instance, couldn't conceive of this. The Apostle Peter just couldn't get this.
Remember in Matthew 16, the first time when Jesus announces that he must go to Jerusalem and there he must be tried and there he must be killed. What does Peter say? No way, Lord, forbid it. That's not gonna happen to you.
And of course, Jesus rebukes him and says, get behind me, Satan. A few verses earlier, he says, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood did not reveal this confession that you are the Son of God, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. So Jesus commends him when he makes that great statement and declaration, but then Jesus condemns him by saying, get behind me, Satan. You're not thinking God's thoughts after him.
I must go to Jerusalem. I must be tried. I must die in order to save my people from their sins. The Apostle Paul turned back to 1 Corinthians.
This is why I made the distinction between exemplary preaching and indicative preaching. What we find in Christ, first and foremost, is not example. Brethren, Christianity is not simply behavior modification. Christianity isn't simply imitation.
Be like Jesus, do like Jesus, and everything will go well. That's a liberal take on the reading of the scriptures. That's a bad take on the reading of the scriptures. Christianity is a redemptive religion.
Christianity is about God saving His people from their sins through blood atonement. Christianity is about redemption, not simply imitation. But as I've notified you, there are times when the apostles point to Jesus as an example. But look at 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18.
Where is the wise, where is the scribe, where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe." Now notice, the sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ was an affront to the Jews of his day. It was a scandal.
It was a stumbling block. As far as they were concerned, Messiah would come and subjugate the Roman Empire, and every Jew would have a chicken in their pot, every Jew would have a car in their driveway, every Jew would have a good job, every Jew would be fat and happy, and everything would be great. They missed the whole point of the prophetic word. They missed Isaiah 53.
He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. The chastisement for our peace was laid upon him. All we like sheep have gone astray. They missed the redemption through his blood.
Now notice in verse 22, for Jews request a sign and great seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. To the Jews, a stumbling block, and to the Greeks, foolishness. You see that? For the Jew, it was a stumbling block.
For the Jew, it was a scandal. Remember, we saw that in the passion narrative in Matthew's Gospel. What are they saying at the foot of the cross? Are they saying, let's hail Him, let's adore Him, let's stand in awe of the suffering servant of Yahweh who's come to save us from our sin?
They mocked Him. They said, He said He's the Son of God. If He's the Son of God, let God help Him. If He is able to save others, why can't He save Himself?
Come down from the cross. You see, the poverty of Christ is seen in the Incarnation. The poverty of Christ is seen in the fact that even though the foxes had their holes and the birds had their nests, the Son of Man had nowhere to lay His head. But that poverty is seen in His suffering.
That poverty is seen in His crucifixion. and that poverty for the believer who has appreciated Christology is seen as a glorious example of redemptive love and benefit. Notice how Paul continues in verse 24. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. So back to 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 9.
The apostle tells us that Christ was rich. For your sakes, Christ became poor. Philip Hughes says, from highest heaven, he descended to Calvary and the grave. None was richer than he, none became poorer than he.
So that is his riches, that is his poverty.
The Redemptive Benefit
Now notice the redemptive benefit. That you, through his poverty, might become rich. He says that at the first part, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes." And then again, that you, through His poverty, might become rich. It points to the blessed reality that there are benefactors who have been chosen by God from before the foundation of the world to receive that redemptive benefit.
And that Christ, in the mission that He assumed from the Father, that He took on willingly to take on our humanity, to live a life of obedience, to die a death of sacrifice and atonement and substitution, and to be raised again the third day, it was such that we would become rich, that we would become blessed. In the Nicene Creed, 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. And then it says, Who for us men and for our salvation. There's redemptive benefit for the people of God in the mission of the Messiah.
It is glorious, it is awesome, and it is a blessed display of what we find in this passage. That though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich.
Spiritual Riches Defined
Now brethren, we are not health, wealth, prosperity morons. The riches in view are spiritual riches. Ephesians 1, the apostle 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. So the benefit that we accrue through the poverty of Jesus doesn't necessarily mean two cars, a boat, and a summer home.
That's not the riches that are in view. It's the spiritual riches, the doctrine of justification by faith alone. the reality that when God regenerates us by the power of the Holy Spirit, when He opens our heart, or better, removes the old stony heart, puts in a new fleshly heart, and gives us the graces of faith and repentance to close with Christ, we are forgiven of our sins, and we receive a righteousness from God. It's imputed to us, and it's received by faith alone. So we have the doctrine of justification.
That's a riches, or part of the riches that has been conveyed to us. And then there's sanctification. There's growing in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus. So in justification, we have the benefit of what Christ did for us.
In sanctification, we have the benefit of what the Spirit does In us, it is a most blessed reality. Philippians 2, 12 and 13 underscores this. And then, of course, there is glorification. The reality that one day, when we breathe our last breath, when we get hit by a truck, or when the world ends, we pass into the presence of God Most High.
You see why Paul refers to this as riches. We are rich men and women. We may not have two cars, we may not have boats, we may not have houses on the lake. Now that's not necessarily evil.
The Bible doesn't condemn hard work. Do you see a man who excels in his work? He shall stand before kings. Do not overwork to be rich, the wise man says.
But if God blesses you and there are temporal provisions and all of those things, you don't have to sell all that and give it to the poor and go to the airport and bang a tambourine. That's not biblical. That is not godly. That is not righteous.
But the emphasis in 2 Corinthians 8, in terms of our riches accrued by the poverty of Jesus, it's justification, sanctification, glorification. We might add in there, adoption. We're adopted as sons unto God through the finished work of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ.
Application and Conclusion
So in conclusion, we notice, at least contextually, the Macedonians gave out of their poverty, according to verses 1 to 5. Christ, though he was rich, yet for your sakes became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich. So the Apostle appeals to the Corinthians to be large-hearted, liberal, and giving to churches in need, and he speaks concerning the Macedonians and concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, we find, or we should appreciate, the glory of Jesus.
The glory of Jesus in His person. Typically in theology, we consider the person and the work of our Lord Jesus. And His person, we've seen, we've understood. I hope that there's two natures in the one person.
We call that, in theology, the hypostatic union. but as well the work of Christ, His life of obedience. Why does Jesus obey everything that the Father tells Him? Because we don't, because we fail, because we reject, because we transgress, because we're lawless, because God tells us good things, and we do just the opposite. So Christ's life of obedience is crucial for the people of God.
The Lord demands obedience over sacrifice. And so the life of the Lord Jesus is absolutely crucial. But as well so is his death. When we consider the work of redemption, we see the death of Christ as absolutely crucial.
We need cleansing. We need purity, we need forgiveness, we need washing. And we get that through the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then of course his resurrection seals the deal.
The apostle in Romans 4.25 says that Jesus was delivered up because of our offenses and he was raised for our justification. In terms of the possession of riches, listen to John Gill. He says that they through his poverty might be rich. Not in temporals, but in spirituals.
And by his obedience, suffering, and death, in his low estate, 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. And then one final observation, and then we close in prayer.
Simeon's Wonder at the Incarnation
Turn over to Luke 2. Luke chapter 2, I think one of the best ways to marvel at the wonder of the incarnation is to imitate that man, Simeon. To imitate that man, Simeon. If you look at Luke's gospel in chapter 2 at verse 25, And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.
And this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. He's waiting for the Messiah. He understood the prophet Isaiah. He understood the prophet Jeremiah.
He understood the prophet Micah. He understood the prophetic literature. that God Most High was sending the Messiah to save His people from their sins. So this man is just and devout, he's waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
Imagine that. You're not going to die until your eyes lay hold of Jesus. I mean, he lived in a in an interesting time in redemptive history, and he certainly received redemptive benefit that was most blessed. Now notice in verse 27, he came by the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, He took a baby out of a mother's arms and he starts to basically dance, not dance like the jig, but he's just reveling.
He is rejoicing, he is delighting. Mary obviously saw in him a trustworthy fellow that was able to take the babe from her. So he takes him up in his arms, he blesses God and he says, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation." So as he lays eyes upon that little baby, he is able to rehearse back to God, these eyes now have seen your salvation. That's the incarnation, brethren.
The incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ is the salvation of our God Most High. Notice, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. So this brother saw what we haven't by by reason of our life setting and all that sort of thing. But he has conveyed to us something of the wonder of the incarnation.
To see Christ is to see God's salvation. To see Christ is to see the one prepared beforehand by God to be not only savior for Israel, but to be a light as well unto the Gentiles. This is why I said he understood the prophet Isaiah. Because in 42 and 49, the prophet says as much, that Jesus will not only save the lost tribes of Jacob, but he will be a light unto the Gentiles.
Brethren, let us never lose this Simeon-like wonder at the incarnation of our Lord. Let us not treat it like old hat. Let us not forget that though he was rich, yet for our sakes, he became poor, that we through his poverty might become rich.
Closing Prayer
Well, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for this brief statement that is so packed full of good theology. God, help us to understand these things, and may it be the case that they would promote in us and evoke from us worship to our great and glorious God, that we would worship the Father through the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit, and that we would glorify your great and awesome name. What a wonderful manifestation of the love of God in the sending of the Son.
And in the Son, who was rich, and yet for our sakes He became poor. That in the incarnation, and in His life of lowliness, and in His sufferings, and in His death, He brings us to a place of great spiritual riches. Help us, Father, to ponder these things, to be encouraged by them, and help us to glorify You. And we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen. We'll close with a brief time of meditation.