Morning, December 24
Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings
2 Corinthians 8:9
"For your sakes he became poor."
2 Corinthians 8:9
The Lord Jesus Christ was eternally rich, glorious, and exalted; but
"though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor." As the rich
saint cannot be true in his communion with his poor brethren unless of
his substance he ministers to their necessities, so (the same rule
holding with the head as between the members), it is impossible that
our Divine Lord could have had fellowship with us unless he had
imparted to us of his own abounding wealth, and had become poor to make
us rich. Had he remained upon his throne of glory, and had we continued
in the ruins of the fall without receiving his salvation, communion
would have been impossible on both sides. Our position by the fall,
apart from the covenant of grace, made it as impossible for fallen man
to communicate with God as it is for Belial to be in concord with
Christ. In order, therefore, that communion might be compassed, it was
necessary that the rich kinsman should bestow his estate upon his poor
relatives, that the righteous Saviour should give to his sinning
brethren of his own perfection, and that we, the poor and guilty,
should receive of his fulness grace for grace; that thus in 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
hearty fellowship. Poverty must be enriched by him in whom are infinite
treasures before it can venture to commune; and guilt must lose itself
in imputed and imparted righteousness ere the soul can walk in
fellowship with purity. Jesus must clothe his people in his own
garments, or he cannot admit them into his palace of glory; and he must
wash them in his own blood, or else they will be too defiled for the
embrace of his fellowship.
O believer, herein is love! For your sake the Lord Jesus "became poor"
that he might lift you up into communion with himself.