The Unparalleled Grace of Jesus
2 Corinthians 8:9
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfsKX4pF9x8
When the Apostles talked about our lives, they did so by placing before us the example of Jesus Christ
When they told us to love each other, it was because Jesus Christ loved us.
In John’s gospel Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35 NKJV)
When they talked about our need to forgive, it was because of God the Father through Jesus loved us and forgave us.
“And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32 NKJV)
When they talk about our need to be humble it is because Jesus humbled Himself even to the point of the death, as He died for us there upon the cross.
“Being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” (Philippians 2:6-8 NKJV)
When they talk about our need to be patient, they talk about how Jesus endured hostility from sinners.
“For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.” (Hebrews 12:3 NKJV)
And when they talked about our need to be benevolent, they used again Jesus as their example in the verse we’re exploring today.
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9 NKJV)
And so, let’s begin by looking at these Riches that were Christ’s.
The Riches of Christ
“That though He was rich.”
What we need to understand is that these riches were not something that He acquired while here upon the Earth and then lost them. If that were the case, then this verse really has no meaning. Instead, the riches were what Jesus left behind when He came.
This points to what is known as the doctrine of the Godhead, that is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit always existed and existed outside both time and space.
And when we view it like this, then it makes sense as we acknowledge the divinity of Christ, as the prophet Isaiah declared of Him, saying, “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given … And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6 NKJV)
Everlasting Father: Look at what Jesus said about He and the Father. “I and My Father are one,” and “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” (John 10:30; 14:9 NKJV)
And of His name that He is indeed the Lord God, the prophet Isaiah said, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14 NKJV) And the name Immanuel translated means, “God with us.”
And so, the riches refer to Jesus’s divinity as the second person of the Godhead.
Therefore, Jesus’s riches are found in His attributes as God. It is where He is eternal, almighty, filled with infinite knowledge, boundless goodness, immaculate purity, and impeccable truth.
· Jesus is not only great, He is the greatest.
· Jesus is not only high, but He is the highest.
· Jesus is not just a king, He is the King of King and the Lord of Lords.
But Jesus’s riches are also found in His dominion.
Jesus’s Dominion
Jesus’s is also rich in His dominion over all things. He is the Creator of the Universe.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He (The Word) was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” (John 1:1-3 NKJV)
How rich is Jesus, everything in this world, in this universe was and is created by Him and for Him.
“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.” (Colossians 1:16 NKJV)
Jesus said that if the people did not praise Him then the rocks would. Therefore, the fragrance of every flower is His, the sound of every brook and river is His, the cool breeze on a hot summer day is His, the brilliance of every star in the sky is His, and they all sing His praise.
Now, today we count someone as being rich based upon not only what is in his or her bank account, but also the size of their estate. But of God it says, “The earth is the Lord's, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein.” (Psalms 24:1 NKJV)
And since Jesus created it all, He then has dominion. In fact, take a trip around the universe and beyond, and everywhere we may go, that is Jesus’s domain.
“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds … and upholding all things by the word of His power.” (Hebrews 1:1-3a NKJV)
Therefore, when we talk about the riches of Christ what we see, and now understand, is that not only is everything His, but the riches of Christ are eternal and inexhaustible.
And yet, in all of His riches in glory, He became poor.
The Poverty of Christ
“Yet for your sakes He became poor.”
This was not accidental. Jesus did not make some poor management decision and lost it all. This was a voluntary act. And we see this first as He assumed our nature.
Consider the immensity of this. The change He voluntarily went through is beyond our limited understanding.
· You have an infinite being, the Lord God, taking upon Himself the finite form of a human being.
· You have the Lord God of immense power, taking upon Himself human weakness.
· You have God in all His glory taking upon Himself the degradation of human form, in that it ages.
· You have the Lord God, who is holy and righteous, taking on the form of sinful flesh.
And so, here you have Jesus Christ, the creator of heaven and earth, the 2nd person of the Godhead becoming poor, becoming one of us in order to die for us so that we can inherit the riches He has for us in heaven.
And not only did he assume our nature, but He also came in the poorest form of our nature.
His parents were not of royal lineage, but of the working class, and the lower echelon of the working class. He wasn’t born in a palace with silk sheets, but He was born in a stable, and laid in a feeding trough for animals with hay as his bedding. He had no gold or silver, nor any place where he could call home.
Jesus said, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” (Matthew 8:20 NKJV)
In fact, all he had as possessions were the clothes on His back, and at his death, they stripped this away from Him. Jesus lived without having anything and died without anything to His name. In fact, He was buried in another man’s tomb.
Jesus, according to worldly standards, was also poor in reputation.
Solomon said, “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches.” (Proverbs 22:1 NKJV) And “A good name is better than precious ointment.” (Ecclesiastes 7:1 NKJV)
And even though Jesus was without sin, the spotless lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, He was called a glutton, an alcoholic (winebibber), and a companion to publicans, prostitutes, and sinners. They referred to him as a false prophet, a deceiver, a madman, and a messenger of the devil.
In a prophecy of the coming Messiah found in Psalm 69:20 it had the Messiah saying, “Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness; I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.” (Psalm 69:20 NKJV)
In the end He was branded as a blasphemer and put to death in the cruelest way possible, the cross.
Why?
Now, after seeing the riches and poverty of Christ, what is the end game, what did Christ have in view in becoming poor? It was because of our poverty that Christ became poor so that we could become rich.
“Yet for your sakes He became poor.”
You see, originally, humanity was rich, of Adam it is said that God created him and all of humanity in His own image and according to His own likeness. And then God blessed them to rule, that is, have dominion over the earth in which God had created and gave to Him every seed-bearing plant as food. And to top it off, Adam was given knowledge, where he even named all the animals that God had created.
But Adam and Eve lost the blessings when they desired to be gods themselves, and because of their sin they lost it all, or better yet, they became poor, which describes the condition of humanity today. That Apple, or whatever the fruit was, cost Adam and hence all of us everything.
But Jesus came and left the riches of His glory behind and became poor like all of us so that we, through His poverty and death, can now become rich.
And so, for our sakes, in our extreme moral and righteous poverty, Jesus became poor, so that we “Through His poverty might become rich.”
But the question become, rich in what?
Rich in Knowledge
Jesus became poor so that like Adam, we could gain and become rich in knowledge once again, or maybe to say it another way so that we can have spiritual revelation to the ways of this world and the will and way of God.
This was actually what the Apostle Paul prayed for us.
“For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” (Colossians 1:9-10 NKJV)
Rich in Grace
There are three graces that describe this richness.
Redeeming Grace; that is, the grace that God extends to us that forgives our sins, making us, as the prophet Isaiah says, “white as snow.”
Regenerating Grace; that is, the grace that sees us becoming new creations in Christ, where the old is passed away and all things become as new. It is where our sinful and lost nature has now been renewed and where we are no longer the same as we once were.
Adopting Grace; that is, grace given to us to change our family tree, where we were once from a physical family, but now we are a part of the family of God. It is where we are now heirs of God, with heaven, and all the riches associated being a part of God’s family, are ours, which includes eternal life, and an inheritance that is incorruptible in heaven.
“Grace to you and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.” (1 Peter 1:2b-4 NKJV)
And so, let’s take a quick look at how we become rich through Christ’s poverty.
· Jesus came from heaven in order to lead us to heaven.
· Jesus became the Son of Man, so that we can become the children of God.
· Jesus was both hungry and weary so that we could be filled with abundance and be at rest.
· Jesus was hated by men so that we might have the love of God.
· Jesus bore the curse of sin upon the cross so that we could be made right with God.
· Jesus died upon the cross so that we can have eternal life.
· And Jesus was buried and rose from the dead so that we can die to sin and then be raised to eternal life.
And so, leaving the riches of His glory behind to become poor was nothing less than an act not just amazing grace, but an act of unparalleled grace.
Unparalleled Grace
Now, why do I use this definition of God’s grace, that is, “unparalleled.” It’s because this grace is unequalled by anything that humanity can do or has devised. It is exceptional in that there is nothing else like it. It was an unprecedented move in that no one expected it. It was a rare, unique, and matchless act on God’s part who loved us so much that He gave “His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16 NKJV)
So, what is grace?
Now, the standard definition for grace is “God’s unmerited favor.” And that’s correct. God loves to bless all who don’t deserve it, which includes every one of us.
Grace is also a part of God’s nature. That’s why it’s important for us to understand His grace, because the more we understand God’s grace, the more we’ll be drawn to God and love Him for it.
Grace, therefore, is when God gives us what we don’t deserve, and that is His blessings. It is where we deserve punishment for our sins, but instead God gives us the blessing of forgiveness, salvation, and heaven instead.
Now, going back to how we began in talking about how the Apostles talked about our lives by placing before us the example of Jesus Christ, this is what I like to do in sharing about God’s grace towards us.
God’s Living Definition of Grace
To take this a step further, God has given to us an additional definition of grace. It is seen in God’s grace towards us as embodied by Jesus Christ, and what He did for us upon the cross, taking our place and dying the death we all deserve.
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8 NKJV)
And again, the Bible tells us that all have sinned and have fallen short of God’s holy and righteous standards for life, and that the wages of our sin is nothing less than death (Romans 3:23; 6:23a).
But it is here that God’s grace kicks in, as it goes on to say that while the wages of sin is death, “The gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23b NKJV)
And Jesus reveals God’s amazing and unparalleled grace, and that He is the living definition of God’s grace by saying, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16 NKJV)
I like how David Wilkerson defined grace. He said, “Grace is Holy Ghost empowerment to become more like Jesus.”
To grow in grace, therefore, is to grow into the likeness of Jesus Christ, who is God’s living definition of grace.
Conclusion
And being that Jesus is the living definition of grace, God’s grace goes beyond not just our understanding, but now in our experiencing it. And we experience it through the Gospel message, that is, the good news of Jesus Christ.
And so, when the Gospel message of Jesus Christ is believed, then the grace of God is on full display and experienced.
It is therefore a grace that is connected to every part of what it means to be a Christian. In that as believers in Jesus Christ we have been called, justified, renewed, sanctified, comforted, kept, sealed, and saved all by the unparalleled grace of Jesus.
The Apostle Paul in his closing remarks to Titus said, “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:4-7 NKJV)
