Christ's Poverty A Mark Of Separation

Christ's poverty was one of the marks of His entire separation from the world, the proof that He was of another world and another spirit. 

As it was with the fruit good for food and pleasant to the eye, sin entered the world, so the great power of the world over men is in the cares and possessions and enjoyments of this life.

Christ came to conquer the world and cast out its prince, to win the world back to God. He did so by refusing every temptation to accept its gifts or seek its aid.

Of this protest against the worldly spirit, its self-pleasing and its trust in the visible, the poverty of Christ was one of the chief elements. 

He overcame the world first in the temptations by which its prince sought to ensnare Himself, then and through that in its power over us.

The poverty of Christ was thus no mere accident or external circumstance. It was an essential element of His holy, perfect life; one great secret of this power to conquer and to save; His path to the Glory of God. 

~T. Austin Sparks