“For your sakes He became poor” (2 Corinthians 8:9)

Jesus Christ was eternally rich, glorious, and exalted; but though He was rich, for your sake, He became poor. Just as the rich saint, to have intimate fellowship with his poor brethren, must share what he has, it’s impossible that our Divine Lord could have intimate fellowship with us, unless He imparts to us some of His own wealth, becoming poor, to make us rich.

If, Christ had remained upon His throne in Heaven, and we had continued sinners without His salvation, fellowship would have been impossible on both sides. Our position by the fall, apart from His covenant of grace, made it impossible for us to approach God, “for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial?” (2 Corinthians 6:14-15).

The righteous Savior has given to us His own perfection, and we, the poor and guilty, have received His fulness, so in the giving and receiving, the One might descend from the heights, and the other ascend from the depths, and so be able to embrace each other in True and genuine fellowship.

Our poverty must be enriched by His infinite treasures, and our guilt must lose itself in His imputed righteousness before we can walk with Him. “He has not dealt with us according to our sins … As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:10-12).

Christ must clothe His people in His own garments, or He can’t admit them into His place of glory; and He must wash them in His own blood, or else they’ll be too defiled to embrace His fellowship. Oh saint, this is love! For your sake, the Lord Jesus “became poor” that he might lift you into communion with Himself.

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