On Sunday evening, March 22nd, 1888, Charles Spurgeon entered the pulpit exhausted. He had constant speaking engagements for the last week and was utterly worn out. The Downgrade Controversy continued to loom over his mind as well. It had now been a year since he sounded the alarm on the growing theological liberalization within the Baptist Union. Rather than addressing the problem, the Union voted to censure Spurgeon the following January.
Tired and weary, the preacher decided to focus on a simple truth of Scripture that night, something that would offer rest in trying times. He decided to meditate on the poverty of Christ and the riches we gain through Him.
Using 2 Corinthians 8:9 as his guiding text, Spurgeon highlights the unfathomable depths of Jesus’s condescension. The infinite God became finite man–and not a man of any societal stature at that. He was not born into royalty or wealth but was placed into the arms of a modest carpenter and his betrothed. “He might have been born in marble halls, swaying the sceptre of universal empire, and from his birth receiving the homage of all mankind. But instead of that, you know, he was reputed to be the carpenter’s son, his mother was but a humble Jewish maid, and his birthplace was a stable,— poor accommodation for the Prince of the kings of the earth.”
Christ’s condescension did not stop there. His reputation as God was set aside, and He was instead beaten and derided; the world did not give Him the honor that was due. Then His poverty sank to nothing when He gave His own life. “We have, perhaps, never realized the wonder that he ‘who only hath immortality’ did actually die. His spirit departed, he gave up the ghost, the ghost who had been a guest within his body, he gave up that guest, and his body was tenantless, an empty house.”
But praise be to God that Christ’s story does not end in the grave. Three days later, he rose again. Spurgeon brilliantly displays the dichotomous relationship between Christ’s poverty and the riches of those who are saved through Him. He was made finite so that we could become infinite. His reputation was thrown down so that we could be called sons of God. His life was cut short so that we could be given the gift of eternal life. What a comforting and restful thought for a man who had many earthly treasures ripped away in his final years. Spurgeon could rest in the reality that through Christ’s poverty, he and all those who have put their faith in Christ are already given riches beyond measure.
Excerpt:
There was no need that Christ should be poor except for our sakes. Some persons are born poor, and it seems as if, with all their struggles, they could never rise out of poverty; but of our Lord Jesus Christ it can truly be said that “he was rich.” Shall I take you back in thought to the glories of the eternity when, as very God of very God, he dwelt in the bosom of the Father? He was so rich that all he possessed was as nothing to him. He was not dependent upon any of the angels he had created, nor did he rely for glory upon any of the works of his hands. Truly, heaven was his abode; but he could have made ten thousand heavens if he had willed to do so. All the greatest wonders he had ever made were but specimens of what he could make. He had all possibility of inconceivable and immeasurable wealth within his power; yet he laid aside all that, denied himself the power to enrich himself, and came down to earth that he might help us. His poverty was all voluntary; there was a necessity laid upon him, but the sole necessity was his own love. There was no need, as far as he was concerned, that he should ever be poor; the only need was because we were in need, and he loved us so that he would rescue us from poverty, and make us eternally rich.
Read the rest of the sermon here.