Today’s New Covenant nugget is from 2 Corinthians 8:9 (TPT)
For you have experienced the extravagant grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that although He was infinitely rich, He impoverished Himself for our sake, so that by His poverty, we become rich beyond measure.
Many people get very uncomfortable when the statement is made, “Jesus became poor, so that we could become rich.” For so many decades dead religion has taught that poverty is somehow a virtue, and that a desire to be rich is selfish, vain and of the flesh. After all, they say, “Jesus said that it is harder for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of Heaven that it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, and Jesus said that the love of money is the root of all evil!”
How do we reconcile what Jesus said to the disciples, and what He said through the Holy Spirit to the church in Corinth?
Firstly, Jesus said that the LOVE of money is the root of all evil, He did not say that MONEY is the root of all evil.. money is neither good, nor bad in itself, but ‘lusting after money’, or running after money is the root of all evil, not money.
1 Timothy 6:10 (TPT) says, “Loving money is a root of all evils. Some people run after it so much that they have given up their faith. Craving more money pushes them away from the faith into error, compounding misery in their lives! “ The original Greek actually says, “the insatiable greed for money is the root of all evil.”
What about the eye of the needle?
In Jerusalem, there is an Eye of the Needle Gate. The eye of the needle mentioned in the book of Matthew was one of several gates that provided passage through the city of Jerusalem's massive walls. The Needle Gate was used when the city's main gates were closed at night and used for people entering the city "after hours."
It was designed for security reasons, so that enemies could not simply ride into the city on their camels and attack. The gate was so small that a man would have to unload his camel of all that it was carrying and then carefully lead his camel through this small gate on it’s knees. It was a slow and quite difficult task.
Jesus wants you to have possessions, He just does not want your possessions to have you! Camels went through the needle gate every night… but they had to go through on their knees without holding onto anything… that is how we go through our life of faith, on our knees, without holding onto anything, trusting Jesus for everything!
Now, let’s get back to our scripture in 2 Corinthians…
For you have experienced the extravagant grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that although He was infinitely rich, He impoverished Himself for our sake, so that by His poverty, we become rich beyond measure.
Jesus did not only die on the cross for us to go to Heaven, He died to pay the price for our ‘salvation’. The Greek word for salvation (sozo) literally means deliverance, healing, divine health, provision, prosperity, protection and preservation… Jesus died on the cross for all of those things and more to be restored to us as believers…
In 2 Corinthians 8:9, the Holy Spirit is specifically dealing with provision and prosperity… provision and prosperity of every kind… financially, spiritually, in our relationships, in our enterprises, and in all other areas of life… by the extravagant GRACE of Jesus, although He was infinitely rich, He impoverished Himself for our sake on the cross of Calvary, so that by His poverty, we become rich beyond measure.
Jesus was not poor, and did not live in poverty… He had the ability to buy lunch for over ten thousand people, and He even had a treasurer who was able to continually steal money without the other disciples noticing. Just the gifts of Gold, frankincense, and myrrh alone, given to Him by the wise men may have been worth millions in today’s currency.
Jesus became poor on the cross of calvary, so that we could be rich, He was afflicted with every sickness known to man on the cross, so that we could live in divine health, He literally became sin when He took on the sins of the world, so that we could be made the righteousness of God in Him, and He became cursed to the point that the Father had to forsake Him, so that we could be made accepted in the beloved.
Jesus laid down His extream wealth in Heaven, when He came to earth, while He was on earth, Jesus was healthy, wealthy and successful in every area of life, but He laid it all down on at Calvary, and although He was infinitely rich, He impoverished Himself ‘on the cross’ for our sake, so that by His poverty, we become rich beyond measure.
That is why we look to the cross… our symbol of the extravagant grace of Jesus towards us!
In His amazing love, Nick
