December 24, Morning

C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling

"For your sakes he became poor." — 2 Corinthians 8:9 · KJV

The Lord Jesus Christ was eternally rich, glorious, and exalted; but "though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor." Just as the rich saint cannot be true in his communion with his poor brethren unless of his substance he ministers to their needs, so — the same rule holding between the Head and the members — it was impossible for our divine Lord to have fellowship with us unless He imparted to us of His own abounding wealth, and became poor to make us rich. Had He remained on 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 commune with God as for Belial to be in concord with Christ. In order, therefore, that communion might be brought about, it was necessary that the rich Kinsman should bestow His estate on His poor relatives — that the righteous Savior should give to His sinning brethren of His own perfection, and that we, the poor and guilty, should receive of His fullness 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, before 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 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.