“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9)
“Christ was rich. There is no question to be made of this truth, ‘Christ was rich,’ because He was the second person in Trinity, the Son of God, the heir of heaven and earth, rich every way. When He was poor, He was God then.
Though He covered His Godhead with the veil of humanity, with our base and beggarly nature that He took upon Him, He was alway rich. But especially this hath reference to what He was before He took our nature: He was rich, because He was God; and indeed God only is rich to purpose, independently and eternally rich.
Riches imply, among other things, plenty; and plenty of precious and good things, and propriety. They must be good things that are our own. Christ had plenty of excellent things, and they were His own. He was not only rich in treasure, as He saith, ‘Gold is mine, and silver is mine,’ Hag. 2:8, but heaven and earth, that contains all treasures, are His.
‘The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof,’ Ps. 24:1; and it is He that made the heavens. He that made heaven and earth must needs be rich; nay, if there were need, He can make a thousand heavens and earths.
He is not only mighty, but almighty; not only sufficient, but all-sufficient.
He can do what may be done; He can do what He hath done, and more than He hath done, and more than we can conceive; He can remove all difficulties that hinder Him; He is rich in power and wisdom every way.
The point is very large, but it is not so pertinent to the text to shew what He was in Himself, but what He was for our sakes; therefore I will be shorter in it.
Hence then you see that Christ was, before He was exhibited. He did good before He appeared. He was rich before He took our nature upon Him. He was God before He was man. I say this against the cursed heresy of Arius, which I will not now rake up again.
But undoubtedly you see here a good ground of that grand article of our faith—Christ was God before He took our nature. He came; therefore He was before He came.
He was sent; therefore He was before He was sent.
He was God, before He was God ‘manifest in the flesh.’ In Philip. 2:6, it is largely and excellently set down:
‘Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but He was made of no reputation; He took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man: He was found in the fashion of man; He humbled Himself, and became obedient to death, even to the death of the cross; therefore God hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name above all names.’
It is a large comment and explication upon this text, ‘He was God; he thought it no robbery to be equal with God.’ Christ was God, not by usurpation and robbery against God’s will, but He was God by nature.
He was rich by nature. He thought it no robbery, no disparagement, nor usurpation to be equal with God; He did God no wrong in it.
Therefore when He became man, He was not cast into these inferior parts of the world, to punish Him, as if He had been an usurper; but it was a voluntary taking of our nature on Him, ‘being rich, He became poor,’ and ‘being in the form of God, He made Himself of no reputation.’”
–Richard Sibbes, “The Church’s Riches,” The Works of Richard Sibbes, Volume 4 (ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart; Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1638/2001), 4: 496-497.
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