The Day God Became Poor

The Day God Became Poor
John R. Petrilli

In a September, 2007 edition of the television program 20/20, investigative reporter John Stossel did an expose on giving in America . He compared the giving of upper middle-class non-religious people in San Francisco , CA , to that of working poor religious people in rural South Dakota . The results were nothing short of startling. Surprisingly, the working poor of South Dakota out-gave their wealthier counterparts in San Francisco by a whopping 100%! S.U. professor Dr. Arthur Brooks concurred that his nationwide research yielded very similar results.

In short, America ’s working poor give far more to charity than do America ’s middle class. Another interesting finding revealed that even the wealthiest classes of America ’s rich give more to charity than the middle class. Media mogul Ted Turner has lost over 80% of his net worth by giving away record percentages of his wealth to charity. But such numbers pale in comparison to what God gave to bring salvation to earth. Nine months before the very first Christmas Eve the second person of the Trinity descended from Heaven to take on human flesh. Second Corinthians 8:9 contains four profound truths about Jesus’ first coming of to earth.

JESUS TRIP TO EARTH WAS AN ACT OF INFINITE GRACE!

“You know the GRACE of our Lord Jesus, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes, He became poor, that you, through His poverty, might become rich.”

I never realized just how breathtakingly beautiful our planet was until I saw NASA photos of Earth taken from outer space. Our earth most definitely stands out as the crowning jewel among the planets of our solar system.
What did Jesus see that night long ago as He peered over Heaven’s portals and looked down on our planet? Did He see a perfect race? NO. Did He see a world at peace? HARDLY. Did He see a people that would be receptive to His arrival? DON’T THINK SO. Did He see a palace that He’d live in? FAR FROM IT. He saw a race sick and crippled by sin. He saw a world that was ravaged by 4,000 years of wars and strife. He saw a people who had consistently rejected His Father, and would also reject Him. He saw a lowly manger in Bethlehem and a humble cottage in Nazareth .

What could possibly cause anyone in their right mind to willingly vacate a palatial home and to come to such a place? The answer is GRACE. Grace gives people what they don’t deserve. And believe you me, we surely didn’t deserve a visit from the Son of God! We deserved God’s wrath, but instead He surprised us with the love gift of His very own Son. We deserved God’s justice, but instead He extended His hand of mercy. Nothing in the entire universe more graphically displays God’s grace than the incarnation of Jesus Christ!

JESUS TRIP TO EARTH WAS AN ACT OF INCREDIBLE SELF-SACRIFICE!

“Though He was rich, yet for your sakes HE BECAME POOR.”

John Stossel’s research also revealed a dramatic spike in the number of millionaires and billionaires in America over the past two decades. A number of multibillionaires were interviewed about their charitable giving, with each one’s net worth being openly publicized. So just how wealthy was Jesus? What was His ‘net worth’ when He left Heaven to come down to Earth? Page one of His portfolio discloses that He owned all the stars and galaxies in space. Imagine what kind of profits you could haul in if you owned all the energy outputted by just one star like our own sun? Page two of Jesus’ portfolio indicates He owned all the livestock, all the aquatic life, and all the aviary life on the planet as well. I wonder what value the New York Stock Exchange would place on all that! But being rich involves more than vast holdings and possessions, it also involves the exercise of power and influence. Page three of Jesus’ portfolio shows that as King of Kings and Lord of Lords Jesus owned all the Nations of the Earth. Just owning the EOC would make you a gazillionaire! As God, Jesus had free and full exercise of all the power of divinity. He exercised power over the weather, power over the oceans, and power over the rulers and kingdoms of the entire world. The wealth of most sons is often determined by the net worth of their father. If that’s the way we determine wealth, then Jesus was THE WEALTHIEST PERSON of all time, case closed.

So what did Jesus DO with all that wealth and power? Believe it or not, He voluntarily surrendered His right to use it. That’s right. He set most of it aside! He temporarily relinquished most of His power, authority, and position when He became a man. By doing so, the richest and most powerful person ever to inhabit time or eternity instantly became the poorest, most powerless of men. Paul tells us in the book of Philippians that Jesus surrendered His exalted position of co-equality with the Father. Next, He surrendered His existence as pure spirit to take on a human body with all of its attending limitations. But He didn’t stop there. After that, He opted to settle for the lowest place on the social ladder, that of a common servant, trading divinity for servility! Then He stooped even lower and accepted a criminal’s death sentence He never deserved. And, to top it all off, Jesus surrendered Himself to the most shameful death known to man, death by public crucifixion. He was born in a stable of poverty, raised in the poor town of Nazareth, spent three years of His adult life as a homeless preacher, died with no clothes on his back, and was buried in a borrowed tomb. Was He poor? I’d say He was DIRT poor!

JESUS TRIP TO EARTH WAS AN ACT OF IMMEASURABLE GENEROSITY.

“Our Lord Jesus became poor, SO THAT YOU, through His poverty, might become RICH!”

When wealthy philanthropists give away or invest their money into charitable causes, the benefactors are many, and the effects are felt years and even decades down the road. Foundations are established in their names so that, even after they’re long dead and gone, their money will continue to support good causes. The same thing happened on a far grander scale when Jesus used His vast spiritual prosperity to enrich we who were so dirt poor spiritually.
All the proceeds of that act went, not to the physical or temporal benefit of a few hundred people, but to the spiritual and eternal benefit of the whole of mankind. By coming to earth, He positioned Himself to become the sacrifice for our sins. His death and resurrection opened up the storehouse of Heaven, allowing all the manifold blessings of salvation to come pouring down upon our race.

When we receive Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, we instantly become spiritually RICH! We trade all our spiritual poverty for all of Christ’s spiritual wealth! We immediately become Jesus’ joint heirs of God’s family inheritance, and what an inheritance it IS! According to Matthew, it’s an inheritance that will never end! According to Mark our inheritance that’s indestructible by its very nature! According to Luke, it’s an inheritance that’s shared with sanctified saints, not sometimes self-centered relatives! According to John it’s an inheritance that involves co-reigning with Jesus Himself over the nations! According to Paul our inheritance is rich and glorious! And according to Peter, it’s an inheritance that’s irrevocable and incapable of being stolen away! We’re guaranteed a future body that will never again be subject to decay or death! Until that time, God promises to provide for each of our temporal needs out of the vast storehouse of wealth we now have access to in Christ Jesus. And we receive resurrection power to live today in the here and now!

JESUS TRIP TO EARTH WAS AN ACT OF INESTIMABLE LOVE.

“FOR YOUR SAKES He became poor”.

John Stossel’s research also revealed documentable evidence that giving one’s time or treasure to someone else actually improves their emotional, psychological, and physical well-being! Researchers have found that those who participated in volunteer work for the first time saw their blood pressure go down, their energy go up, and their attitude become more cheerful. While there’s nothing wrong with reaping the benefits of serving others, that wasn’t
the driving force behind Jesus’ giving up His all. So just what WAS the bottom line for Jesus doing all this? Why DID Jesus go through all the humiliation, sacrifice, and suffering of becoming man and then dying to save us?

It was LOVE, pure and simple. Love always looks out for the best interests of the object of its affection. Jesus is God, and God, by His very nature is self-sufficient. He doesn’t need anybody or anything to validate, substantiate or complete His existence. Bank on it, Jesus didn’t come to earth and go to that Cross because it made Him feel better about Himself. Absolute perfection doesn’t require any type of affirmation. He did all this because He LOVES US … it’s just that simple! He was born, lived, died, and was raised from the grave for our benefit!
There was nothing in it for Himself. The Father asked Him to go, and He went. As Ray Boltz states in his song, “What If I Give All?”, “Long ago, a Father and a Son, saw the children lost in sin, can you see the tears in the Father’s eyes, as Jesus says to Him, ‘What If I give all I have? What will that gift do?’ My Son that gift will change the world! It will free the multitudes!” The message of Christmas is the message of Christ, and that message is that God loves you! Love drew-up salvation’s plan, love sent salvation’s man, and love still holds out
salvation’s hand. Jesus wasn’t sent to us because we were such good little creatures. He came to us because without His arrival we’d be hopelessly lost in the dark for all of time and eternity. He came to us when we were groping in the fog of sin, and showed us the way out of the dark and into His marvelous light. As we celebrate His momentous coming to earth, let’s also remember that He did it all because He loved us … period. Those who know Him as Savior are looking forward to His second visit to earth, if the signs of the times are any indicator, that may be sooner than we think! Have you crowned Jesus King of your life yet? If not, I can’t think of a more appropriate way to celebrate His first coming than to do so on the observed day of His birth?