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The What and Why of The Incarnation

2 Corinthians 8:9 Christmas

Pastor Albert N. Martin expounds 2 Corinthians 8:9, "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might become rich." He meticulously defines the 'what' of the Incarnation as the eternal richness of Christ's Godhood coexisting with His temporary, voluntary poverty in humiliation, emphasizing that nothing was subtracted from His divinity. The 'why' of the Incarnation is revealed as the enriching of poor sinners, procuring perfect righteousness, pardon, the Spirit, and sonship. Martin challenges listeners to examine if they possess these true riches, concluding that the Incarnation is the ultimate revelation of God's unmerited grace.

1 illustration in this sermon

The Temporary Poverty of Our Lord
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Two Kings: Deposed vs. Voluntary Poverty

Driving home: So we must not identify the poverty with the humanity, but with the humanity in a state of humiliation.

Martin contrasts a king who is deposed and stripped of all royal rights with a king who voluntarily takes on the garments of a beggar to identify with his impoverished subjects while retaining his royal title and access. This illustrates that Christ's poverty was voluntary and did not diminish His inherent divine richness.

Here are two kings. One sits upon a throne up to a point that a foreign government comes in and deposes him.

26:42 - 26:52 Read in full sermon
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