March 4

Might be rich. - 2 Corinthians 8:9.

HERE is another wonderful transition. We have seen a transition from riches to poverty; here is a transition from poverty to riches, and all through the medium of his interposition on their behalf. What a change takes place in the subjects of divine grace always! They were “thorns” and are now “fir-trees;” “briers “but now “myrtle-trees;” afar off, but now “made nigh;” blind, but now they see; dead, and are made alive; were “lost, and are found;” were poor, and now are “made rich.” We were poor in every sense of the word; we had nothing we could call our own except sin. Poor as creatures, poor as sinners; the fall has stripped us of all our moral and Spiritual excellencies, but He “remembered us in our low estate.”

We had no knowledge, but we are now “made wise unto salvation.” We had no righteousness then; we have now “the righteousness which is of God by faith.” We had no strength then; we are now “strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” We had then no title to heaven; we have now “a right to the tree of life.” We had no peace then, we have now a “peace which passeth all understanding.” We were then strangers to joy; we have now a “joy which is unspeakable and full of glory.” We were then poor enough, were living without God; we now have a God who is our own God for ever and ever, and we can claim him with all his perfections, relations, and promises, and can say, “God, even our own God, shall bless us.” How rich are Christians then become! Theirs are the “unsearchable riches of Christ.”

We shall never do them justice, for we never can understand them fully. They are Spiritual riches; they render the soul wealthy, and they are eternal in their duration. This Spiritual wealth may consist with much outward poverty and distress; persons may be poor in this world’s goods, and be rich in faith, rich towards God, and “heirs of the kingdom “which he hath promised to them that love him. “Poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, yet possessing all things.” Very little of the Christian’s wealth is here discernible, because it is to be enjoyed above. They are now minors; their inheritance is therefore reserved in heaven for them: for “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”

“His angels can never express,

Nor saints who sit nearest the throne,

How rich are his treasures of grace!

This, tins is a mystery unknown.”