The Lord Jesus Christ was eternally rich, glorious, and exalted;
but "though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor." As the
rich saint cannot be true in his communion with his poor brethren
unless of his substance he ministers to their necessities, so (the
same rule holding with the head as between the members), it is
impossible that our Divine Lord could have had fellowship with us
unless He had imparted to us of His own abounding wealth, and had
become poor to make us rich. Had He remained upon 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 communicate with God as it is
for Belial to be in concord with Christ. In order, therefore, that
communion might be compassed, it was necessary that the rich kinsman
should bestow his estate upon his poor relatives, that the righteous
Saviour should give to His sinning brethren of His own perfection,
and that we, the poor and guilty, should receive of His fulness 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 ere 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 else 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.
