For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though being rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.
2 Corinthians 8:9 (LSB)
You might have come across this verse before. But what does it actually mean? Let us look at it carefully; this text offers a lot of depth, especially for those who are new to the Christian faith.
Jesus is called “rich” here. That does not refer to money or possessions, but to His heavenly position. In the Christian faith we believe that Jesus was not merely a man, but the Son of God, who was always with God in heaven, in perfect glory and majesty. That was His “wealth.”
But He voluntarily gave up that position. Jesus surrendered His status, power, and divinity by becoming man. That is what Paul calls “becoming poor.” He left His heavenly place, His divine glory, and His position at the right hand of the Father to become one of us. That was an unimaginable humiliation.
Why did He do it? So that we, people who are slaves to our own sins and therefore enemies of God, could receive the heavenly wealth that belonged to Jesus. His poverty made us rich. How rich? As rich as God Himself.
By taking upon Himself the wrath of God that we deserved for our sins, by paying the ransom and purchasing us out of our sins, Jesus made those who are saved into children of God.
How poor did Jesus become? That becomes even clearer in another Bible text:
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (LSB)
This text says something very remarkable. Jesus was Himself perfect and without any guilt. But at the cross, God treated Him as if He bore the guilt of everyone who is saved. It was as if all the murders, all the lies, all the hatred, and all the injustice of everyone who is saved were laid upon Him.
Yet Jesus was not Himself a sinner. That is an important difference. He did not become evil. He was treated as though He were guilty of all the sins of all believers. Christians call this “imputation.” It is a legal term: God’s righteousness demanded that sin be punished, and Jesus voluntarily took that punishment upon Himself, even though He had not deserved it.
Some preachers claim that Jesus Himself became sinful on the cross and therefore had to go to hell. That is a serious deception. Jesus remained without sin always. He did not Himself become a sinner, but He bore the consequences of our sin. God directed His full wrath against evil onto Jesus, as if Jesus were Himself guilty of it, although He was not.
And now something reverse happens: believers are treated by God as if they were just as righteous and perfect as Jesus Himself. Not because they deserve it, but because Jesus has taken away their guilt. It is an exchange: He took our unrighteousness upon Himself, and we receive His righteousness.
Paul, an important writer in the New Testament, describes his own struggle with this in Romans 7:24:
Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?
Romans 7:24 (LSB)
He feels trapped in his own weakness and tendency toward wrong choices. But then he continues with gratitude: God has saved him through Jesus Christ. That is the deliverance the Christian faith is about.
God therefore treats me as if I have the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ Himself. That is not an excuse to do whatever you want. Knowing that God, in all His power and with all His might, would have punished you with death for all your sins results in gratitude and worship. Gratitude for the price Jesus Christ paid to buy off the wrath and punishment of God. Worship to Him who gave His life for you.
Why did Jesus pay our death with His life? Many people think that Jesus died only for them, for the believers. But He did not. Jesus did it for God. Jesus fulfilled God’s will and restored the honor of God. And we, the believers, are as it were the gift that God the Father and the Son share with each other. So it is not only about us. It is about God’s honor.
This is why the church, the community of believers, is so precious. The church bears the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Jesus has paid the guilt of everyone who belongs to His church, and in exchange the church bears the righteousness of Jesus.
That is why the church is so important to Christ:
And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
Matthew 16:18 (LSB)
The church is important to Christ because He Himself builds her and because He paid the highest price for her: His own life.
Because the church is so precious to Christ, He gives clear warnings about how believers must treat one another. They must treat each other with the same love with which Christ treats them. Whoever hurts another, in a certain sense hurts Christ Himself.
Jesus warns sternly about this:
It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble.
Luke 17:2 (LSB)
By “little ones” He means vulnerable believers. It is better to drown than to lead someone else onto a wrong path. That shows how seriously Jesus takes mutual love and care.
Whoever mistreats a fellow believer or causes them to stumble, in fact touches Christ Himself. For believers are one spirit with Him, as Paul writes:
But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
1 Corinthians 6:17 (LSB)
and
There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;
Ephesians 4:4 (LSB)
The Church is a Reflection of Heaven
The church is the only place on earth where heaven becomes visible.
When we look at the institutions that bear the name “church,” we too often get the impression that heaven is a frivolous, superficial form of entertainment. That heaven is shallow, cunning, and man-centered. The image that many churches project is blasphemous.
In the prayer that Jesus taught us, we read:
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.Matthew 6:10 (LSB)
The question is: where does God’s will actually happen on earth as it happens in heaven? Not in governments, courts, universities, or the media. They are all human and fallible. The only place where God’s will is done perfectly as in heaven is the church, if at least she lives according to what God intended.
What actually happens in heaven? In heaven there is continual worship, praise, adoration, and perfect purity. Everything revolves around God. Jesus is exalted and glorified there. He sits at the right hand of the Father, as King over all.
Heaven is also a place of absolute purity. In the last chapters of the Bible (Revelation 21 and 22), heaven is described as a city of light and purity, where nothing impure enters.
Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the authority to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city. 15 Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the sexually immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.
Revelation 22:14-15 (LSB)
If heaven is pure and holy, without sin, then it is self-evident that Jesus attaches so much importance to combating sin within His church.
In Matthew 18:15-20 He gives a step-by-step plan for how believers must deal with sin in their midst: first privately, then with a few witnesses, then before the whole congregation. Whoever does not listen is removed from the community, not to punish, but to show that sin is serious.
“Now if your brother sins, go and show him his fault, between you and him alone; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as the Gentile and the tax collector. Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”
Matthew 18:15-20 (LSB)
Both in this passage and in the commission to Peter and the apostles in Matthew 16:18-19, Jesus uses the Jewish expressions “binding” and “loosing.” If someone shows repentance and changes his wrong behavior, he is “loosed” from his sin; his guilt is no longer counted against him. If someone refuses to change, the church confirms that he remains “bound” to his sin, and that will condemn him.
The remarkable thing is this: the decision has already been made in heaven. The church only speaks out what God has already decided. That is how heaven becomes visible on earth, and God’s will is done as in heaven. The church is never closer to heaven than when she deals honestly and lovingly with sin.
The Church Holds Fast to the Truth
In Psalm 119 we read:
My heart is in dread of Your words.
Psalm 119:161 (LSB)
The church derives her authority from the Bible. It is seen as the inspired Word of God and the highest guideline for faith and life. Paul writes to his young co-worker Timothy:
preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and teaching.
2 Timothy 4:2 (LSB)
This shows that the church has the task of faithfully teaching and defending the truth.
The church is also the guardian of sound doctrine. The apostolic message, recorded in the New Testament, forms the core of the Christian faith. The church must protect this doctrine against false teachings. Paul warns the elders of Ephesus:
I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.
Acts 20:29-30 (LSB)
Therefore watchfulness is needed, to preserve the purity of the message and to protect believers from deception.
Soli Deo Gloria! — To God alone be the glory.