First Presbyterian Church of Baton Rouge

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor. So that by his poverty, you might become rich.

Once again, Paul has put the whole gospel into one sentence. Think of what he’s saying. You know what grace is. Grace is the story of Jesus. He is the eternal Son of God who lived in the riches of eternity. But because we were lost in sin and death, he came to find us. He stripped himself of glory and became poor. He was born in humility and lived in obscurity. He made his way as a working man in a backwater town. He gave away his love, his time, and his energy as he went about healing and forgiving. He gave us life in the ultimate humiliation of crucifixion. The Lord of glory died a disgraceful death. And he did it for you. For your sake he became poor. So that out of his suffering we might have forgiveness. Out of his disgrace, mankind might be restored. Out of his death, we might have life. He makes us rich with eternal life, forgiveness of sins, and every spiritual blessing that comes from being in intimate relationship to the Triune God.

There’s a flow here. God who is complete fullness, emptied himself into our humanity so that our empty hearts might be filled. He poured himself into our lives so that we might be filled up with grace and love and mercy again. That’s the heart of how God cares for the creatures he loves.

We are meant to participate in this flow of grace. By receiving it as a gift, yes. But also by giving grace back out to others.

"Go with the Flow"
2 Corinthians 8: 1-15
Gerrit Dawson
October 15, 2017

The Christian hope is astounding. Paradoxical. Glorious. God became man. The eternal Son of God took up our humanity. He entered time. He entered the world as one of us. Paul writes elsewhere that in Jesus, God was “taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2: 7-8). God wanted to do something about the plight of the creatures he had made. But he didn’t just want to issue commands from on high. God wanted to change us from the inside out. So he determined to work from within the human race. He came to us as one of us. Jesus was really a man of flesh and blood like every other person. But an ordinary person could not truly affect the course of all humanity. How could what one man did be powerful in every woman and man’s life? Only if that man was also God. Only if that man was also the creator of every man and woman. Only if that man acted not just as an isolated man but as God himself on behalf of us all.

One died for all, therefore all died.

Christ undid death. So in his dying, we “un-died.” We come alive again in Jesus.

"One for All"
2 Corinthians 5: 8-15
Gerrit Dawson