June 3
“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,” 2 Corinthians 8:9.
The apostle Paul reminds the Corinthian Christians and us of the basic teaching of the Gospel. He clearly states that this is something that all Christians know. We know, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Grace is the undeserved love of the Son of God. Grace encompasses the word forgiveness. God the Father is also gracious. The Father pronounces us forgiven and justified for Jesus’ sake.
Earlier, Paul reported, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the Word of reconciliation . . . (God) made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him,” 2 Corinthians 5:19, 21.
God’s grace reveals itself in calling us sinners to repentance and faith. In his Epistle to the Romans, the apostle Paul speaks of God’s grace and love: “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life,” Romans 5:8. God loved us and demonstrated His love by loving us while we were still sinners; we were not lovely, loving, or lovable. Jesus did not come into the world to save perfect people. He suffered, died, and rose again to save sinners.
The apostle Paul further demonstrates the greatness of Jesus’ love with the words, “Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor.” The apostle John begins his Gospel with the words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made . . . He was in the world, and the world was made through Him,” John 1:1-3, 10. Through the almighty power of God the Father and God the Son, all things were created. In the Epistle to the Colossians, we are told, “By Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible,” Colossians 1:16. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews wrote, “God . . . has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds,” Hebrews 1:1-2.
Through His Son, God created all things. The Son was rich, but He became poor. He said, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head,” Luke 9:58. He humbled Himself; He did not always and fully use His divine attributes and powers, so that He could suffer and die to redeem all people from sin, death, and the power of the devil. He became poor so that we through His poverty might become rich. The blessings of His poverty – the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation – are ours by faith in Him. By faith in Him as God’s Son and our Savior, we are spiritually and eternally rich! The glories of heaven have been gained for us by our Lord Jesus Christ!
“Beautiful Savior, King of Creation,
Son of God and Son of Man!
Truly I’d love Thee, Truly I’d serve Thee,
Light of my soul, my Joy, my Crown.” Amen.