HOW tremendously full is the message of Christmas, and indeed of all Christian faith, which is contained in this verse in the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians. When our Lord Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, he became amazingly poor. He had come from the riches of the heavenly glory of eternity, and was made into human form, into the poorest of families. He left the pristine holy perfection of the heavenly glory, and entered this defiled and sinful world in which we live. He was born in the likeness of sinful flesh only. He himself remained absolutely pure, and remained absolutely pure throughout his earthly life.
Why did he humble himself in this incredible way? He did it in obedience to the Father. What did it involve? It involved him in living through all the terrible temptations of Satan directly, and of Satan's followers the leaders of the Jewish church, and the Roman authorities to attack him. He did this in order to, in obedience to the Father, the eternal God, to live a perfectly sinless life in our place. Then at the end of his earthly life he submitted to the terrible cruel death on the cross at Calvary and then in the death of hell, to be forsaken by God, as he suffered all the terrible punishment which our sin deserves.
He suffered this incredible poverty of body and soul so that we could become rich. These riches are the riches of his pure eternal persence in his eternal glory, where all sorrow, sighing, and sin will be entirely absent. He suffered in this way that all who, realising the destiny our sinful lives deserve, and coming in deep repentance for that sin and sinfulness, to our trust in Jesus as the one who has borne our sin in his body of the cross. In order to gain the riches of the heavenly glory which Jesus gave up to pay the price of our sin, and win the riches of eternal life for all who believe on him.
How could this be possible? It became possible through his grace. Grace is God's saving favour which is totally undeserved by us, and has provided the heavenly riches through our Lord Jesus Christ becoming poor as is so briefly described above.
May your Christmas this year be flooded with these riches of incredible joy as you see Jesus becoming poor in the manger in Behlehem and put your trust in him as your Saviour and your Lord.
Living Word