by M. H. Reynolds Sr.
[The following article was written by Pastor M. H. Reynolds, Sr., who founded the Fundamental Evangelistic Association in 1928. As one of the outstanding fundamentalist leaders of his day, he reveals the evangelistic heart of a true fundamentalist in this article which first appeared in the March 1931 issue of Grace and Truth magazine. It is especially appropriate at this time of year when we take the time to remember the Incarnation.]
“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
In this text you will find buried, so to speak, in the heart of Paul’s message on giving addressed to the Corinthian church. To understand its setting, one must keep in mind the following facts: The church at Jerusalem had been going through a period of suffering. The Macedonian churches, though in poverty themselves, had given in a splendid way (2 Corinthians 8:1-3). The Corinthian church, though wealthy, had been backward with reference to helping. It is to them, that the apostle is speaking when he calls to their minds the fact that giving is a grace which they should have (2 Corinthians 8:7).
To impress this matter upon their minds, he calls their attention to what the Macedonian churches have done (2 Corinthians 8:1-5). He then reminds them of their other splendid graces, stating that they have abounded in every thing; in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all diligence and in their love toward the apostle and those who labored with him. With this said, he urges them to abound in the grace of giving (2 Corinthians 8:7), stating that in this way they have an opportunity to test the sincerity of their love (2 Corinthians 8:8). With this brief word of introduction we come to the striking words of our text: “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).
Coming to a text like this, it is well to break it up and consider it word for word, or phrase by phrase. In this way one can better get at its meaning. We will follow the second method and study the text with you phrase by phrase.
First of all, then, we find the text reminds us of a knowledge they had:
“YE KNOW THE GRACE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST”
If one never passed beyond this point in his education, we would be the last to say that he was ignorant. When one stops to think of the countless millions of people who have passed through our schools and colleges, institutions of learning, and yet who do not know what these good people knew, it raises the question in our minds as to whether our schools, after all, have missed the real purpose of education.
What a splendid thing it is that Paul could remind these good people at Corinth of something that they knew. In an age when people are confused by their own guess-work, when men and women are prone to speculate, the church of Jesus Christ needs to lift her voice and remind the world that we can know. Here are people who knew.
Passages setting forth this possibility, for instance, need to be stressed. The world needs a message which will stabilize it: for it is reeling like a drunken man to its doom. Take, for instance, such a passage as we have in John 7:17: “If any man will do His will, he shall blow of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” Or take another passage such as this: “These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His Name” (John 20:31). Or again, Romans 8:28 says: “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” Here is a very important one: “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:13).
Thousands of people have gone to school and graduated with honors and yet do not know what our good friends of Corinth knew. May we pause right here, dear reader, and put the question to you. Listen to it, for here it is straight from the shoulder—Do you know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ? Think of it! Paul could say to the Corinthian church, “Ye know”! How we ought to praise God if we can be included in that class. But let us pass on to the next phrase, if we may:
“THAT THOUGH HE WAS RICH!”
This immediately takes us back beyond the scene at Bethlehem, back before the prophets. “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). Yes, we go back into the very beginning. The Gospel of John tells us: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:1-3). Here you have Him: rich beyond the words of human expression. If one could pile all the riches of this world together and multiply them many times, the whole would be but as refuse in comparison with what He had. He was rich!
Note again in the seventeenth chapter of John, the fifth verse. Here we have the Lord Himself pulling aside the curtains on the unseen and eternal for a moment as He prays, “And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with thine own Self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” Again in the first chapter of Hebrews we read, verse two, that God “hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds: Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His Person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.” Thoughts fail us as we mentally push ourselves out into the realm of eternal things, seeking by our puny efforts to measure the eternal riches of Christ.
Again we hear Him say, “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last” (Revelation 1:11), and we become lost, so to speak, in our adoration of Him who was rich. Oh, how precious the thought! He was rich. Back in the inner recesses of our minds comes the thought: He was rich! Is it any wonder that Paul could make an appeal to a rich Corinthian church? Remember! He had reminded them and us that they knew of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, who, though He was rich,
“YET FOR YOUR SAKES HE BECAME POOR!”
And here we stop for a moment to meditate: Think of it! We have ascended into the highest heaven only to find “Him”—the Lord of Glory—there clothed in glory with all His riches; with even the seraphim saying, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:3). And now we turn to Philippians two, and read verse six: “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
From highest heaven to lowest sheol He descends. He lays aside His royal garments. The riches of eternity with the glory that He had with the Father go with them, and we find Him as a Babe in Bethlehem, in the likeness of men. Riches have vanished, as it were, over night, for we read that “there was no room for Him in the inn.” Think of it! He who was rich, He who had made the world and those that dwell therein, He came, but there was no room for Him. Poor? Yea, He must needs be cradled in a manger.
Luke 9:58 tells us the story: “And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head.” Yes, He was so poor that when night time came, the place where He lay was one that He could not call His own. Poor—yes, so poor that words fail us as we seek to describe it. Stripped of those things which ordinarily one would count as riches! Day by day He saw the multitude that had followed Him for the loaves and fishes leave Him never to return! Then day by day, as the little crowd grew smaller and smaller, one can appreciate the pathetic picture as He turns to them one day and asks, “Will ye also go away?” Yes, He became poor! Poverty! beyond the power of man to describe was His.
See Him there, as He is placed on yonder cross. See Him as He hangs there between the two thieves! Remind yourself of who it is that hangs there! It is He who was rich. Yea verily, but how poor He has become! Earthly possessions, He has none. Friends, they have long since gone. Disciples, they too have all forsaken Him and fled. What is that? Yes, the sun hides his face, and darkness covers the earth. Yonder there in the darkness we hear His voice; listen, He is crying! “My God! My God! why hast Thou forsaken Me?” With lightning-like rapidity thoughts come crowding into our minds—How could such a thing as this come to pass? Why should He come to such a place as this? Surely there is some explanation some place—but where shall we go to find it? And again, we take up the words of our text, and here, in the fourth phrase, we have an answer to these troublesome questions—for it says:
“YET FOR YOUR SAKES HE BECAME POOR, THAT YE THROUGH HIS POVERTY MIGHT BE RICH”
Here is our answer: Blessed Word! For your sakes! A scene such as the one that we have just described can never be appreciated until the Holy Spirit reveals to our darkened minds the precious words of our text—“But for your sakes.” As the old hymn writer puts it, “Twas for me, the Saviour died.”
If we may turn to Isaiah 53:5-6 we will find that the prophet there is saying the same thing: “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed All we like sheep have gone astray: we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Again we find the same thought in 1 Corinthians 15:3: “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.”
And now it commences to dawn upon our darkened minds! Yes, and that is just what the text says, too—“Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor that ye through His poverty might be made rich.” Is it any wonder then that we can sing with all the depths of its meaning:
Christ hath for sin, atonement made,
What a WONDERFUL SAVIOUR,
We are redeemed, the price is paid,
WHAT A WONDERFUL SAVIOUR.
What a wonderful Saviour is JESUS MY JESUS,
What a wonderful Saviour is JESUS MY LORD.
But even there we can’t stop, for our text goes on to something that is even better than that—listen to it.
“THAT YE MIGHT BE RICH”
Not only redeemed, but prepared by the Lord Himself to spend the countless ages of eternity with Him in glory! Think of it! John says, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him.” Yes—that ye might be made rich!
Peter speaks of this same future when he says in the first epistle, first chapter, verse three, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” This covers the thought of redemption from sin; then he goes on to say, “To an inheritance, incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.”
Made rich! Yea, verily, that is God’s plan. The world measures riches by the wrong yard stick. It is not the number of stocks or bonds one may possess. It is not the amount of money one may have laid away in some bank. It is not the size of ones holdings as far as this world and her goods are concerned. No, it is none of these! But in the light of our text, true riches consist in one’s relationship to HIM, the Christ of God, of whom our text speaks—let us read about Him again:
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.
Listen attentively now, for with this thought we close: Paul could say to those at Corinth, “Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Can that be said of you, dear reader? If not, may we suggest that just now, with the words of this little message fresh in your mind, you open your heart to the Lord Jesus and let Him in as Savior, for He says:
“And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17). “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” (John 1:12). DO THIS TODAY!
— M. H. Reynolds Sr. (1931)
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