From Rags to Riches

“You know how full of love and kindness our Lord Jesus Christ was. Though he was very rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that by His poverty He could make you rich.” (2 Cor. 8:9)

What an amazing verse!

Think of it: Jesus was and is the Son of God. Who in all of creation was richer than He, besides God Himself? The angels who serve Him were rich, but not nearly as rich as the Son. They were and are blessed to be able to enter the Presence of God, to serve and minister for the Almighty Creator Himself and to behold His great glory. But Jesus, being a Son, was an heir of God. This means that everything that belongs to God, belongs also to Him. Talk about rich!

As Jesus said, “All that the Father has is mine.” (John 16:15). Imagine, He could walk through all of Heaven and the entire Universe, put His finger on anything and say “This is mine.” To any of the angels He could have said, “You belong to Me.”

Yet when humanity, made in His own likeness, fell into sin, He lost something He loved very dearly. Adam and Eve, who were also rich, sold themselves out to the devil, and became in an instant very poor. Through the trickery of the devil, we traded our privileged place in God’s dominion and shook hands with death.

But because of God’s overwhelming love for us He sent His only Son to rescue us from our terrible and eternal plight.

Jesus too traded His great riches, for a poverty greater than we will ever fully know. As the Scripture says: “Though He was God, he did not demand and cling to His rights as God. He made Himself nothing; He took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form. And in human form He obediently humbled Himself even further by dying a criminal’s death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:6-8).

He who knew no sin, became sin for us. He endured the punishment meant for our wrongdoings. He took the hit that divine justice had aimed at us. On the cross, the greatest transaction in all of history was taking place. Through the intense suffering of His loving sacrifice, He was liberating mankind. He volunteered to take our sentence, so that we could walk away free!

And not just free, but rich!

When we accept Christ as our Lord and Saviour we trade our poverty for His riches. We exchange our death for His life. We trade our sin for His righteousness. We swap our misery for His joy. We exchange our sickness for His health. We trade our fear and anxiety for His peace. We trade our darkness for His marvellous light. We trade our citizenship in Hell for a free ticket to Heaven. We trade our utter hopelessness for the never-ending hope of an eternal life. Jesus has completely turned the tables on our poverty and made us truly rich in every way.

Not only that, but in Christ Jesus we have become the adopted children of God. And if children, then also heirs: “For His Holy Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts and tells us that we are God’s children. And since we are His children, we will share His treasures – for everything God gives to His Son, Christ, is ours, too.” (Romans 8:17).

And again: “And because you Gentiles have become His children, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, and now you can call God your dear Father. Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are His child, everything He has belongs to you.” (Gal.4:6, 7)

So no longer think of yourself as poor. Call yourself rich! Anything less than that is a dishonour to the work of Christ. Make it personal today, know that Jesus did this for you because He loves you. You mean so much to Him that He would suffer as much as He did to help you. In Christ Jesus you have been rescued, redeemed and restored to God, whom you can now call Father, and whose all is now yours!

As Christians, we have the ultimate rags to riches story. Because of the love of Christ, truly we are all slumdog millionaires!