Originally posted: 7/21/2020
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 through His poverty might become rich, (8:9).
The Corinthian church had started out strong, growing in their spiritual gifts: in faith and knowledge, and even in their love. And Paul now encouraged them to follow through with their pledge to share with the church in Jerusalem that was suffering and in need.
It appears as though the Corinthians had lost sight of their pledge in light of all they had, as they abounded in their many gifts of grace. So Paul patiently reminds them that giving is also a Supernatural gift of grace.
But just as you abound in everything, in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all earnestness and in the love we inspired in you, see that you abound in this gracious work also, (8:7).
And as an example of this supernatural giving, Paul pointed the Corinthian church to the churches in Macedonia.
Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, 2 that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality, (8:1-2).
Only in God’s economy would affliction and poverty equal joy and overflowing wealth; the sum of His Supernatural gift of grace. And how? Because He chose to become poor that we might become rich in Him. All His Supernatural grace is summed up in His Supernatural Poverty, when He emptied Himself and gave it all, for us.
Consider His Supernatural Poverty
Supernatural: “(of a manifestation or event) attributed to some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature; not existing in nature or subject to explanation according to natural laws; not physical or material.”
How can we ever explain or understand all that Jesus did in emptying Himself of His Divinity? We can’t; it’s beyond our ability to do so. And it’s not only unfathomable that He chose to let go of all the glorious rights He held as God, but it’s what He chose to take hold of in their place: His humanity as the humble Servant-Man.
…Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men, (Philippians 2:5-7).
We can’t explain or understand the truth of all He did, for it is so far beyond our natural comprehension. But the Scriptures reveal what we can absolutely know. We can absolutely know He did not start out poor; from the beginning He was, and always had been, God.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:1, 14).
And we can absolutely know that He chose to empty Himself; He chose His Supernatural Poverty… for us, so completely beyond the natural.
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 through His poverty might become rich, (8:9).
- His Supernatural Poverty was His own choice.
- “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. 18 No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father,” (John 10:17-18).
- His Supernatural Poverty was for our sake.
- For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you 21 who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God, (1 Peter 1:20-21).
- His Supernatural Poverty bestows the Riches of His Wealth… on us!…
- …the Riches of Salvation:
- The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high;
He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.
6 And He will be the stability of your times,
A wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge;
The fear of the Lord is his treasure, (Isaiah 33:5-6).
- The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high;
- …the Riches of His Kindness and Tolerance:
- Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? (Romans 2:4).
- …the Riches of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God:
- Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! (Romans 11:33).
- …the Riches of His Grace:
- In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight, (Ephesians 1:7-8).
- …the Riches of His Mercy and Love:
- But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), (Ephesians 2:4-5).
- …the Surpassing Riches of His Grace in Kindness:
- so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus, (Ephesians 2:7).
- …the Unfathomable Riches of Christ:
- To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, (Ephesians 3:8).
- …the Riches of the Glory of His Mystery:
- to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, (Colossians 1:27).
- …the Riches of Christ Himself:
- …Christ Himself, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, (Colossians 2:2-3).
- …the Riches of Salvation:
How do we respond to His Supernatural Poverty?
We definitely can’t explain or understand why. Why He would empty Himself for us. Why He would humble Himself to become the Sinless Man Who would die the most excruciating of deaths, not for sins He committed, but for the sins of the world. We can’t explain or understand it. But He did.
who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, (Philippians 2:6-8).
And in His Supernatural Poverty that has so lavishly bestowed on us His unfathomable Riches, we have received the sum of His Supernatural gift of grace. May we never lose sight of the Riches we have in His Supernatural Poverty. And though we cannot explain it all, may we be like the churches in Macedonia, and willingly give our all to the Lord in order to give our lives for His service.
…but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God, (8:5).
Let us pursue God’s economy, trusting that in our affliction and poverty He will supply His joy and overflowing wealth; the sum of His Supernatural gift of grace fully realized in His Supernatural Poverty.
As we let go of the world’s ideas of wealth to give ourselves to the Lord, the Riches we have in Him will far supersede anything this world has to offer.
But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, (Philippians 3:7-8).
Let us choose to daily pursue the Lord in faith, that we may know Him. And let us ask that the gift of His Supernatural Poverty will be made manifest in our lives to grow us to become more like our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, (Philippians 2:3-5).