Christmas Eve Meditation - Though He Was Rich, He Became Poor For Our Sake

© Eric M Schumacher – Preached Christmas Eve 2008 at Northbrook Baptist Church, Cedar Rapids, IA

If the wonder of Christmas can be summarized in one sentence, it might very well be this sentence from the pen of the Apostle Paul writing to the Corinthian believers:

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

Paul states four things in that sentence:

1. The Lord Jesus Christ was rich.
2. He became poor.
3. He became poor for our sake.
4. He became poor so that we might become rich by means of his poverty.

Take a moment this evening to ponder each of these truths.

1) The Lord Jesus Christ was rich.

• He was with God eternally, forever enjoying the fellowship of His Father (John 1:1).
• He was God eternally, forever enjoying the pleasure of being God (John 1:1).
• He created and owned everything that exists (Colossians 1:16).
• Because he created everything, he is the rightful recipient of all glory and honor and power (Revelation 4:11).
• He had at his command the heavenly host to obey him (Psalm 103:20).
• He eternally shared the glory of the Father (John 17:5).

2) The Lord Jesus Christ became poor.

• He became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).
• His first bed was a feeding trough for animals (Luke 2:7).
• When he was less than two years old, a king tried to assassinate him (Matthew 2:16).
• He was called a Nazarene, which is to say he was despised among men (Matthew 2:23).
• He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3).
• He was rejected and unknown by the world he created (John 1:10).
• He was rejected by his own countrymen (John 1:11).
• He was rejected and mocked by his own immediate family (John 7:3-5).
• He ate and drank with sinners (Luke 15:2).
• Unlike foxes and birds, he had no place to lay his head (Matthew 8:20).
• He went hungry (Matthew 4:2).
• He got thirsty (John 4:7; 19:28).
• He got weary (John 6:6).
• He wept (John 11:35).
• The religious leaders frequently tried to kill him (John 8:59; 10:31).
• He was betrayed with a kiss by one of his closest followers (Matthew 26:48-50).
• He was denied three times by one of his closest followers (Matthew 26:34, 75).
• He was arrested and tried in an illegal trial with false witnesses brought against him (Matthew 26:59-60).
• A crown of thorns was pressed into his brow (Matthew 27:29).
• He was mocked for being who he really was (Matthew 27:31).
• He was spit on (Matthew 27:30).
• He was struck on the head with a reed (Matthew 27:30).
• He was struck by the hands of soldiers (John 19:3).
• He was blindfolded by soldiers and then beaten and mocked (Luke 22:64).
• He was scourged with whips (Matthew 27:26; Mark 15:15).
• The people preferred a murderer and insurrectionist be released over him (Mark 15:7-15).
• He was flogged; “stripped naked, tied to a post, and beaten by several soldiers with a whip ‘whose leather thongs were fitted with pieces of bone or lead or other metal’” (John 19).
• He made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, humbling himself to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:7-8).
• He was crucified (John 19:18).
• As he was dying, he was mocked by criminals, rulers and soldiers (Matthew 27:42,44; Luke 35-36).
• Soldiers gambled for his clothing, the last of his few earthly possessions (John 19:23-24).
• He was crushed by the Lord (Isaiah 53:10).
• He was made “to be sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
• He became “a curse” (Galatians 3:13).
• He died (Mark 15:37).

3) He became poor for our sake.

• He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows (Isaiah 53:4).
• He was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; chastised for our peace; received stripes for our healing (Isaiah 53:5).
• Our iniquity was laid on him (Isaiah 53:6).
• He was stricken for our transgression (Isaiah 53:7).
• His soul made an offering for our guilt (Isaiah 53:10).
• By bearing our iniquities, he makes us to be accounted righteous (Isaiah 53:11; 2 Corinthians 5:19).
• He poured out his soul to death and was numbered with transgressors in order to bear our sin and make intercession for us.
• God was reconciling us to himself by counting our sins against Christ (2 Corinthians 5:19).
• He bore the curse for us (Galatians 3:13).
• Christ died for us, so that we might be both declared righteous now and saved from God’s coming wrath on the last day (Romans 5:8-10).
• He is the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:10).

4) He became poor so that we might become rich by means of his poverty.

• We are given his righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Corinthians 1:30-31).
• In Christ, we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3).
• In Christ, we are adopted as sons (Ephesians 1:5).
• In Christ, we have redemption and forgiveness of our trespasses (Ephesians 1:7).
• In Christ, we have obtained an inheritance, which we are qualified to share with the saints in light (Ephesians 1:11; Colossians 1:12).
• We are given the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of the full inheritance that we shall receive (Ephesians 1:13-14).
• We are raised from the dead and freed from the tyranny of the flesh, the world and Satan (Ephesians 2:1-6).
• We have been seated with Christ in the heavenly places far above every earthly and spiritual rule, authority, power and dominion (Ephesians 1:20-21; 2:6).
• We will be made like Christ because we shall see him (1 John 3:2).
• We are reconciled to God (Colossians 1:22).
• We are delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of the Beloved Son (Col 1:13).
• We will be raised from the dead with redeemed bodies (Romans 8:23).
• Everything works together for our good (Romans 8:28).
• With Christ, we will be given all things (Romans 8:32).
• We will never be separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:39).
• God will make known to us the riches of his glory (Romans 9:23).
• We will live in a New Heavens (Revelation 21:1).
• We will live in a New Earth (Revelation 21:1).
• We will live in a New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:2).
• God will dwell with us—we will be his people and he will be our God (Revelation 21:3).
• Every tear will be wiped from our eyes, as death, mourning, crying, and pain pass away (Revelation 21:4).
• We will be given to drink from the river of the water of life and thirst no more (Revelation 22:1).
• We will eat of the tree of life and be healed (Revelation 22:2).
• We will see the face of the Lamb (Revelation 22:4).
• We will walk in the light of God forever (Revelation 22:5).
• We will reign with God and with the Lamb forever and ever (Revelation 22:5).

All that is what this sentence means:

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

All this is why our Lord, who was rich beyond all measure, became poor. This belongs to all those who leave their sin and come to him, trusting in, believing in, treasuring the God who became flesh, born of a woman, laid in a manger, to be the Messiah who would bear our poverty so that we might possess his riches.