The Grace of Our Lord

[2Cor 8:9]

2Cor 8:9 (NASB) –For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.

God wants us to know His grace. He wants us to learn about it, and then to experience it at work in our lives. Grace has been described as “unmerited favor.” The acrostic, “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense,” catches a bit more of its majesty. Grace is God freely providing for us (as we trust in the work of His Son) all that we will ever need, all that we will ever yearn for, all that He has commanded us to walk in and become, realities that we could never produce on our own, could never earn, and could never deserve. Grace offers what every human desperately needs, and what God alone can provide.

This grace is found only in a person, the Lord Jesus. It is the “grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Therefore, it is accessible only through an ongoing personal relationship with Him.

Grace was made available to us by Jesus’ willingness to take our spiritual bankruptcy upon Himself, that we might be able to partake of His spiritual richness. Before coming to earth below, Jesus enjoyed heavenly riches above (“that though He was rich”). He knew the infinitely rich fellowship of the Father and the Spirit. He received the rich worship of angelic beings. He enjoyed the unlimited prerogatives of deity.

Then, for our benefit, Jesus willingly became poor (“for your sake He became poor”). From the splendor of heaven Jesus came to the squalor of earth. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14). He assumed mankind’s debt of sin, and paid for it with His life.

Through these workings of His grace, all who believe in Him would become spiritually rich (“that you through His poverty might become rich”). Now, we whose “righteousness were as filthy rags” (Isa 64:6) have become “the righteousness of God in Him” (2Cor 5:21). We “who once were not a people… are now the people of God” (1Pet 2:10). Now, we have been “blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph 1:3).

Prayer:

Lord, I thank You and praise You for Your great grace toward me. I pray that I may increase in knowledge of the grace of my Lord Jesus Christ, through a growing relationship with Him. Help me to become an instrument of Your grace in the lives of others, all for Your glory and honor, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

God bless you my friend,

— Dwight Hammond