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.
Today’s text from the Bible was written by the apostle Paul to the believers in Corinth. It was with good reason that he drew their attention to the grace of the Lord Jesus. The Corinthians were not adverse to following up the thought of assisting believers in need. Some time previously they had resolved to act on it. But things went no further than that. Could anything other than a renewed consciousness of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ motivate them to further action?
This verse, which is a veritable pearl in the second epistle to the Corinthians, is a summary of the New Testament doctrine as to the Person of our Savior. “Though he was rich”. This takes us back into eternity past and reveals His divine glory. “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.” (John 1:1-3).
“For your sakes he became poor”. These words encompass His life, His suffering and His death on the cross, as the four gospels describe them for us. “That you through poverty might become rich”. This speaks of fulness of the blessing and glory into which we have been brought through Him and in Him. Our riches are expounded in the epistles and the book of Revelation. The entire history of our wondrous Lord and Saviour is thus the highest expression of grace.