I have never heard anyone say they wanted to go from a state of wealth to a state of poverty. It happens to many, but it is usually due to poor management of assets or by unwise spending or investing. Sometimes it is due to trusting others to take care of our money for us, but it is never something we choose. Yet, the greatest man that ever lived, the one we aspire to be like, did just that.
II Corinthians 8:9 “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes, he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.”
In II Corinthians 8:9, Paul tells us that Jesus was rich but became poor for our sakes. It was through His poverty that we become rich. He who was the creator of all that is, laid aside the splendor of Heaven, to live on earth and experience life as a man. Since he is and was God, he could have chosen to come to earth and be born into a wealthy family, but instead, he chose to become the child of a carpenter. Someone that was not a standout in the community. His earthly father was just a simple carpenter. His mother, a young Jewish virgin. Nothing about Jesus indicated royalty. He was the King of Kings with no pomp or circumstance, no crown as He served those He created.
He offered us friendship with Him. A friend like no other, He knows us better than we know ourselves, yet he still loves us. As He walked among men this friend had no earthly possessions to offer them. He was just a common man as they were. He chose to live among the common man. It wasn’t living in lowly circumstances that made Him poor. It was so much more than being economically poor. His true poverty was expressed by Him becoming a man!
Our salvation did not come through the economic sacrifices He made. Material wealth means nothing to Jesus, after all, He already owns everything! His poverty came through His incarnation. It came through His giving up His life in Heaven, He was born of a woman, taking on the flesh of man, yet never once yielding to that sinful nature.
Romans 8:3 “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:”
Galatians 4:4 “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,”
He was manifested in the flesh when He was made lower than the angels.
Hebrews 2:7 “Thou made him a little lower than the angels; thou crowned him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands:”
I Timothy 3:16 “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”
His lowly state became evident to us as he freely put aside all of His prerogatives. He left being face to face with the Father when he took on human flesh. He never regarded himself as equal with God. Although He was in perfect harmony with the Trinity, He didn’t hold onto it. He emptied himself. He took on the form of a slave in the likeness of man. The God of the universe humbled himself and was obedient to the point of death on the cross.
Philippians 2:6-8 “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
He left everything to be treated as a common criminal so that we could one day gain everything. His eternal riches become ours when we receive Him as our Lord and Savior. When He left earth to rejoin His Father in Heaven He went to prepare a place for us. One day we will experience all the splendor of Heaven, but we will never experience what He did as He separated Himself from His Father for our sakes. He became poor so we could be rich.
