August 16, 2025 - Proverbs 13:7,8 - "Christ the Ransom"

Proverbs 13:7,8

"There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing: there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches. The ransom of a man's life are his riches: but the poor heareth not rebuke."

There are many in the world today who think themselves rich. These are people that strive all their lifetime to attain a certain level of wealth and ease, just like that man in the parable in Luke 12:20, that filled his barns and yet the LORD said unto him, "...thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?" Here is an example of one who made himself rich yet had nothing.

Riches are not the key to eternal life. We live in a nation where people consider riches to be a blessing of God: "How blessed we are," they say. You often see it on the front of a brand-new vehicle with a plate that reads, "Blessed!" That's what people consider to be a blessing, and yet they are lost, and left in that state, they will spend eternity separated from God. Those earthly riches will not help them in any way, Psalm 49:7- "None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him."

To make oneself poor is to be brought low by the Spirit of God, and that's what God's Spirit does for everyone that Christ has saved by His shed blood. He didn't come to save the righteous,

but sinners. Consider how we have been made poor in Adam. We're born in this world desperate sinners with nothing to recommend ourselves to God, and yet it says here, "yet hath great riches." What could that be other than the riches of God in the LORD Jesus Christ, the riches of His grace, the riches of His mercy, the riches of that redemption that the LORD Jesus Christ worked out on behalf of sinners: justification, sanctification, glorification, eternal life (Ephesians 1:3-7). These are true riches that belong to those who have been made poor. Being poor in that sense is a blessing of God's grace.

The word "ransom" is key, we find it in verse 8, "The ransom of a man's life

are his riches." The word "ransom" means "a covering." It's the word from which we get the word "atonement," and it's also used of the ark that was pitched without and within with that pitch (Genesis 6:14-21). It's the word "kaphar" which means "to cover." So it's speaking here of the covering of a man's life are his riches.

This verse is stating that one who has riches, those riches are his covering against any legal suit he has wherewith to answer every demand in every suit. A parallel truth is the fact that our LORD Jesus Christ was sued because of His riches. Because of Who He is and the infinite riches in answering to God's just demands.

What happened? He was sued, and what happened to the poor, representing those that He came to save? It says, "the poor heareth not rebuke." That's an amazing reality when you consider how the LORD Jesus Christ stood in the place of wretched sinners such as we are, and bore that judgment. He bore what was due the sinner, but He bore it in His flesh by working out that perfect righteousness that was necessary to satisfy every demand of God's law and justice by laying down His life in death. He's the only One Who could have done that. So because of Him and the ransom in His blood shed unto death, for those that the Father gave Him to save. These are the poor who hear not rebuke for their sin because of Christ their Advocate. "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1).

In 2 Corinthians 8:9, it says, "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 be rich." We can look at this from the standpoint of the Spirit of God making us poor, showing us our poverty as we are as sinners before God, and certainly that is true, and yet having in Christ great riches. Let's not forget the other aspect of this, whereby He Who was rich made Himself poor that we might enjoy the riches of God's grace in Him. You can't separate God's grace from His Son, whereby God purposed to save sinners from eternity. It was because the Son was there already as that Rich Man, as that One capable of coming, and paying the sin debt, and how great that debt is, so great none could ever answer to that debt were it not for that Rich Man, the LORD Jesus Christ, that His Father sent into this world to be that Ransom, to be that Substitute on behalf of His people.

"that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor." Here is an anomaly: the rich poor man. Those who saw Christ in the flesh saw nothing but a common, ordinary man walking this earth. And yet the Glory that was in Christ was veiled to their eyes and it was only by the Spirit of God opening eyes, that any did perceive that this Poor Man is indeed the Rich Man, "for your sakes became poor." That's what John testified in John 1:18, " we beheld his glory." None saw a halo over Christ's head as He marched from place to place. That's why those mocked Him, who were left in spiritual blindness. The fact that He, being a Man, would make Himself equal with God, they would not hear of it, (John 5:18). Yet, that's Who He was as He walked on this earth, emptied Himself of that glory that He had with the Father from all eternity and came and took on Him the form of a Servant, became a Man, and not only become a Man but became obedient unto death for poor sinners that He came to save (Philippians 2:8). That's the reason a body was prepared for Him (Hebrews 10:5-7), to lay down His life that He might redeem (ransom) those sinners that the Father gave Him to save (Mark 10:45).

In the light of these words, we behold in the LORD Jesus the true Rich Man. He possessed from all eternity the unsearchable riches of divine Glory, yet laid them aside to take on Himself the form of a Servant, to be despised and rejected of men, and to lay down His life as a ransom for many. In His voluntary poverty, He bore the wrath and curse due to His elect, purchasing them with His blood, that they should be “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17).

Here is the mystery of grace: the infinitely wealthy Son impoverished Himself, not that the world might have a possibility of enrichment, but that His chosen people should be enriched beyond measure with “all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). In Him, the poorest sinner, stripped of all righteousness of his own, is clothed in the garments of salvation and made the very “riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1:18). Such riches neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and no thief can approach (Matthew 6:20); for they are preserved in Him Who is “the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8).