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“For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).
We all know that when the Lord Jesus was here on earth as a man, He was poor in material things. He could say that He had “nowhere to lay His head,” and He had to ask to see a penny when He wanted to use it as an illustration of something. He graciously accepted it when others helped Him with His everyday living expenses. However, the poverty in our verse today went much deeper than not having money.
Even though the Lord Jesus did not have much money, His being poor in this way would never have put away our sins or saved us from going to hell. No, the poverty spoken about in our verse was the awful judgment of God that the Lord Jesus suffered during the three hours of darkness. During that time He became poor in a way that we will never understand, for He was “made sin” for us. It was only through this poverty that we were made rich, for it was through His sufferings that our sins were put away, and that we were able to receive a new life in Christ. We can appreciate His material poverty, but let us never forget His deep poverty that put away our sins.
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