Grace And Giving

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

2 Corinthians 8:9

Christ's humbling is what Paul holds up as an example of what it means to give. There was a time when Jesus was rich. He was not rich on earth, though He sometimes stayed with rich people. He had friends and neighbors who were rich; some who followed Him were rich, but He Himself had nothing at all. But once He was rich, according to this verse. When was that? Do you remember in the Upper Room Discourse, in the prayer of Jesus recorded in John 17, He says to the Father, And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began (John 17:5)?

I do not know if Paul was aware of this prayer or not, but that is a very wonderfully insightful verse indicating that Jesus recalled a time when He was rich, when everything in the universe belonged to Him. All the hosts of heaven bowed down in continuous worship of His name, and hundreds of thousands were ready to run at His bidding. He owned it all, everything was His, but He gave it up voluntarily. He deliberately impoverished himself. As Paul put it in Philippians, He humbled himself (Philippians 2:8), and He became a man, just a poor man.

Remember how He constantly borrowed everything? He had nothing of His own. He borrowed food, clothing, a coin to give an illustration, a donkey to enter into the city of Jerusalem, and He finally had to borrow a tomb in which to be laid. There was one occasion when it says the disciples all went to their own homes, but He went to the Mount of Olives. He had no home to go to, no place to lay His head.

Why did He do this? Why did He become poor? Paul's reminder is, in order that we might be rich. Have you thought about how rich the Lord has made you? Just the other day, in the midst of all the tumult that we see reported in the international scene, I was thinking what a terrible thing it would be to have to live today without the Lord. Would you like to do that, now that you have known Him? Would you like to give up all the joy, all the peace, all the sense of forgiveness, all the lifting of the load of guilt? Would you give up the sense of His presence, of a power source available to you for whatever you need, of a continual supply of joy and gladness and restoration, of the continual enrichment of your life?

How rich Jesus has made us! He became poor in order that we might be rich. When you think about that, how wrong it seems to withhold our gifts from those who are in need around us. How can we clutch our affluence to ourselves when our brothers and sisters are in need?

Thank You, Lord, for the example of Jesus, who became poor that I might become rich. May I learn to extend that same grace to those around me who are in need.