DEPENDENTLY WEALTHY

Paul writes these amazing words to the Corinthians: “All things are yours…. and you are Christ’s and Christ is God’s” (1 Cor 3:21, 23). What? The Corinthians owned everything? On the surface that was patently false. They owned some things but there was a limit to their possessions. “Well,” someone might say, “perhaps Paul meant that the Corinthians were an independently wealthy bunch and had everything they needed.” But that cannot be for in 7:21 of the same book Paul says, “Were you called as a slave? Do not be concerned about it.” Indeed there were those in Corinth who owned absolutely nothing. Nevertheless Paul could tell the entire church that “all things are yours.” The solution to this conundrum is revealed in verse 23 of our text, “and you are Christ’s.” The Corinthians were not in themselves loaded with cash. They had not achieved the American dream of being independently wealthy. They were rich not because of their personal property but because of their personal Benefactor. They belonged to Jesus. “So what,” someone might rejoin, “wealth is determined by what I own not who I know.” So let me explain how Paul could say the Corinthians owned all things. God, the Creator, owns everything. He owns cattle on a thousand hills and needs ask no one for anything. His own declaration is unassailable; “The world in Mine and all its fullness” (Ps 50:12). There is not one inch of turf, not one dime, not one molecule in all the universe, that is not owned by Him. Now, Jesus is a person in the Godhead. All that the Father owns, He owns. “Christ is God’s.” Thus Jesus possesses all the infinite wealth of the Father and His riches are “unsearchable” (Eph. 3:8-9). When someone trusts in Jesus Christ as his Savior, that person now becomes one with Christ and he instantly gains access to all that Jesus has… which is everything. That person could be a beggar on the street without a coat to wear. Yet the moment he believes in Jesus as Lord and Savior he owns everything that Christ owns. That person has not become independently wealthy. In fact if he tries to draw from his own checkbook he will find nothing there. He is broke. The believer, however, is now dependently wealthy. That is, he is attached to the infinitely wealthy One. As a Christian he can now draw from the bottomless account of his Surety, Jesus Christ. He is rich not because of his own account, but because he now has access to an bottomless account owned by another. An electric drill sitting on the counter is nothing more than a bulky piece of metal, useless, in fact. But plug it into an electric socket and it suddenly springs to life. A drill has no power of its own but is dependent on something else for its power. In a similar fashion the Christian has nothing of his own. He is a spiritual beggar. But when that same Christian seeks to do the will of God and walks in the power of the Holy Spirit, he can draw off the infinite wealth of Jesus. In a sense, he owns everything. Suddenly Gideon, who is from the weakest tribe in Israel, can conquer a great enemy, not because he has any strength of his own, but because he relies on the strength of God given to him by faith. So Christians are wealthy, not independently wealthy but dependently wealthy. And that wealth is available to anyone who leans on Jesus Christ and receives Him as Lord and Savior. Have you abandoned your own resources and attached yourself by faith to the One who knows all things, can do all things and owns all things? To know Him is to gain true and infinite spiritual riches. That is true wealth.