2 Corinthians 8:9 ~ 20190901 ~ Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org
09/01_2 Corinthians 8:9; The Grace of our Lord Jesus; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20190901_2cor8_9.mp3
Paul in 2 Corinthians 8 is talking about grace. Grace, God's lavishly generous giving, his bestowing favor and kindness to those who did nothing to earn or deserve it. Grace, favor freely given. He uses the word for 'grace' 10 times in these two chapters on giving.
The heart of this passage about grace giving is verse 9. It is the root of grace from which all fruitful grace giving grows. It is the ultimate motive and source of all our giving. It is Jesus. It is the gospel. Paul can't talk about grace and giving without centering on the cross. Look at verse 9 with me.
2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.
This verse is concise, it is clear, it is memorizable, and it is packed with profound theology and gospel beauty. I am eager to unpack it together today, and I hope we can all hide it in our hearts and live it out in our lives.
For You Know
It starts with a connection. It is a great verse to memorize, but it is a verse with a context. It starts with 'for' connecting it to the flow of thought in the section. This chapter is about grace, and our response of simplicity of affection. We have been given grace by God, and we respond with an overflow of love, giving ourselves first to the Lord, and then to what he is doing in the world. His grace creates an eagerness in us to extend the grace we have received to others. Paul is giving this opportunity to demonstrate that their love is genuine. This grace extended is a response to grace received.
He says 'for you know'. What he is about to say in this verse is something he expects them to already know, to already have experienced. This is something essential to know, and because you know it, it should impact how you live; what you do. We will come back to this again at the end.
The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, ...
What you know is Jesus. The Lord of us, Jesus Christ. This is his full title; Our Lord, our Master, King, Sovereign, YHWH of the Scriptures. Jesus, the name given him at his birth, because 'he will save his people from their sins' (Mt.1:21); YHWH is salvation. Christ, Messiah, the Anointed Prophet, Priest, and King, the long expected promised one, the fulfillment of all our hopes. Our Lord Jesus Christ.
You know his grace. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. As John said,
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. ...16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
Jesus, the eternal Word, God from all eternity, became flesh, pitched his tent among us. And we saw that he is full; full of grace and truth. He is full of every grace, every beauty, every perfection, everything attractive and desirable and deserving of praise. Not outwardly, physically, in his appearance (he had no form or majesty, ...no beauty that we should desire him, Is.53:2), but his character, his inner nature, who he is. He is full of every grace, and he is full to overflowing of freely giving generous undeserved grace. Every interaction with every sinner was saturated with grace and truth.
From his fullness we have received, grace upon grace. Have you received? Do you know his grace? Not just know about, not merely aware of the fact of who he is and how generous he is, but do you know him? Have you experienced his grace? Can you say that you know, from personal experience? This is the essential thing, that we know him, that we know his grace, that we have tasted his grace.
That on Account of You He Became Poor
2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, ...
You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; who on account of you became poor. It was on your account, for your sake. It was your brokenness that brought him low. It was your sin, your rebellion, your depravity, your poverty of spirit, your desperate need and lack, which caused him to leave the untold riches of glory to enter in to our humiliation. Jesus did not have to come, did not have to become human, did not have to endure humility, except for you, to bring you hope. It was on your account, for your sake that he became poor.
Being Rich
This is his grace. That on your account he became poor, being rich. Our Lord Jesus is rich beyond comprehension. Let's look for a moment at the riches of his person. The fact that here we are told that Jesus became poor points us back to who he was before he came, points us back to his eternal identity as the only Son of the Father. John, at the beginning of his gospel said that the Word was in existence at the beginning; he was with God, and is himself God. Jesus, the only Son from the Father, very God of very God, by his very nature existing as God is rich beyond compare. This is the riches of his person, his nature. Existing as God, he is the most glorious, most blessed being, most worthy to be treasured above all others.
Then John tells us that
John 1:3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Jesus, as Creator of all things, has right and ownership over all things. As Albert Barnes (1872) put it “as Creator he had a right to all things, and had the disposal of all things. The most absolute right which can exist is that acquired by the act of creation, and this right the Son of God possessed over all gold, and silver, and diamonds, and pearls; over all seas, and islands, and continents; over all the treasures of the ocean, and over all worlds” (p.163). Jesus made everything that exists, and it all belongs to him.
Colossians 1:16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
In Order That You by That Poverty
Him for whom it was not robbery, not a grasping to claim equality with his Father, because he was from all eternity equal, emptied himself, became poor.
Philippians 2:5 ...Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
He who eternally exists in his very being as God, rich beyond compare, took on a human nature. He entered into our poverty. Remaining what he was, he became what he was not. Being rich he became poor. Continuing to be what he forever is, he became poor by taking our nature, being born as a human, experiencing the humiliation of the cross.
Isaiah 53:4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53. O the height of glory! O the depth of humiliation.
1 Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
2 Corinthians 5:21;
2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
It was on our account, for our sake, he became poor. This is what he did for us. And by his voluntarily embracing our poverty he accomplished something for us.
That You ...Might Become Rich
2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.
He made us rich. What does that mean? In what way do we become rich through the poverty of Christ? Ephesians picks up this theme.
Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
The riches of his grace purchases our forgiveness, our redemption. Forgiveness cancels our debt and in effect brings us out of debt, out of a negative, to zero. But that is only the beginning.
Ephesians 1:18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,
We have been called into the riches of his glorious inheritance. His inheritance! What Jesus, the one and only Son of the Father, the possessor of all that is, has for his inheritance! We are included in his glorious inheritance! The Spirit must enlighten our eyes to enable us to comprehend the riches of this glorious inheritance.
Ephesians 2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Saved by his grace. Made alive with Christ. Raised with Christ. Enthroned with Christ. God intends for eternity to show off the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us. Let that soak in for a moment. God's purpose, the infinite eternal God who created all things, his intention is to put on display the magnificent bounty of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. God intends to display the extravagance of his generosity, and he intends us as the recipients of that overflow of his gracious kindness.
By God's grace, it was given to Paul, he says in chapter 3, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Unsearchable riches. Riches so vast that we will never through the endless ages of eternity ever get to the bottom of them.
So Paul prays for us. He prays that we would be given strength, power, strength to comprehend.
Ephesians 3:14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
We need supernatural help to comprehend, to know the immeasurable riches of Christ, to know that which surpasses knowledge. Now you may be able to recite some of the riches of Christ toward you. We have just scratched the surface of some of them today; forgiveness, redemption, we have been made alive, raised to new life, we have been made co-heirs with Christ in his inheritance. We might be able to name some of the marvelous riches that belong to us in Christ, but do we know them? Do we treasure them properly?
2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Do you know his grace? If you do, if you have truly tasted his grace, it will overflow in simplicity of devotion to Christ. You will give yourself completely to him. Nothing he could ask would be too much.
Application;
This puts in a clearer light what Jesus did in John 13. Listen.
John 13:3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, 4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
Jesus, assured of his own identity, knowing who he was, was freed to set aside his rights and stoop low to serve others.
John 13:12 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. 16 Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. You have experienced his grace. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. Enter in to the poverty of others. Give yourself completely to him who gave himself up for you, and give yourself by the will of God to others.
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Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org