He Became Poor

My old college president, Dr. H. C. Morrison, once said, “God created men but He had never had been a man. God saw men toil, but He never blistered his hands with carpenter’s tools. He had seen millions struggling on the crumbling verge of the grave and finally sink into its hopeless depths, be he had never felt the cold grip of death or spread his omnipotent shoulders on the bottom of a sepulcher.” But He did become all these when Grace became incarnate. “Through he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (I Cor. 8:9)

He through whom the worlds were created and upheld, through whom man was created, the very Lord of glory, became poor. Insulted and railed upon by foe and betrayed by friends, He became poor. But the depth of the poverty of the Son of Man is not to be seen in any of these. It is not to be seen I His lowly birth, in His lonely walk, not even in His trying hour in Gethsemane.

The depth of the poverty of the Lord Jesus is alone to be seen in that time when the sun for three hours clothed itself in darkness, when the terrific impact of God’s wrath against all the sin of all men was focused upon Him, when as the scapegoat be carried the sins of the whole world in all its awful mass and blackness, when His Father’s face was turned away from Him, leaving Him in the grossest of darkness, and out of that unspeakable anguish of separation, He cried, “My God my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Here is seen the depth of the poverty of the Son of man!

The most real thing in the life of Jesus as the Son of Man was His perfect realization of the presence of God in His life. Surely for Jesus “nearer was God than breathing, closer than hands or feet." Now that Presence which was His very life was abruptly cut off leaving Him in deepest darkness. The question, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" involves a terrible suffering, an agony, an acute sense of loss. Physical suffering is nothing compared to this spiritual suffering, this unfathomable agony of separation, separation from the presence of God.

There on the cross the Lord Jesus was carrying the sin of the world in all its awful mass and blackness. Taking our sins He must take its inevitable consequence which is separation from God, for sin ever separates from God.

G. Campbell Morgan well wrote, "The logical, never-to-be-recalled issue of sin is to be God-forsaken. Sin in its harvest is to be God-abandoned. Sin is alienation from God by choice. Hell is the utter realization of that chosen alienation."

Forsaken, forsaken, will be man's most bitter wail in hell, inexpressible anguish of soul, forsaken of God, for-ever forsaken of a righteous, loving, and just God! Yes, epitomized in this the saddest wail of Jesus on Calvary is the hopeless cry of every lost man and woman at the Judgment Bar of God. Elizabeth Browning caught the meaning of it when she penned these words:

Yea, once, Immanuel’s orphaned cry His universe hath shaken.
It went up single, echoless, "My God, I am forsaken!"
It went up from the Holy's lips amid His lost creation,
That, of the lost, no son should use those words of desolation.

Dr. Henry C. Mabie spent many years visiting various mission fields. He tells his experience in preaching to a South African tribe. The chief of the tribe listened with intense interest as Dr. Mabie told the story of Calvary. The chief called for a repetition of the story. While the story was being repeated, the chief rushed forward Giving, "Hold on! Hold on! Take Him down, I say. Jesus Christ doesn't belong on that cross: I belong on that cross."

And how true of every son and daughter of Adam's race! He took your place! He took my place!

Why did He do it? Because He loved me, He gave Himself for me.

Not the nails, but His wondrous love for me,
Kept my Lord on the cross of Calvary,
Oh, what power could hold Him there
All my sin and shame to bear?
Not the nails, but His wondrous love for me.

Why did He become poor? That you and I might become rich, possessors of real riches. "He emptied himself," that we might be filled unto all the fullness of God. He cried on Calvary, "I thirst," that we might have the Living Water springing up as an artesian well within, satiating every longing of the human soul.

A little girl in rags came to a flower garden where a young woman was in charge.
"I would like some flowers," said the little ragged girl, and I have a penny to buy some."
The lady picked the finest. Then the child gave her the penny.
"Oh no," said the lady, "these flowers belong to the Father and it rejoices him greatly to give them away."

I read of One who gave the finest flower that heaven possessed, "that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life." He so loved that He gave. Jesus so loved that He became poor!

Today millions of dollars are spent on paint to keep wood from perishing. Millions of dollars are spent on life preservers to keep passengers from perishing. Millions of dollars are spent on life insurance to keep families from perishing. But God spent infinitely more, He spent His own son to keep you and me from perishing eternally! And all because of Calvary!

The cross revealed to man the depth of the poverty of the Son of man. The Christ of the cross opened up for bankrupt man the eternal riches of God."



-Claude A Ries