“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corin.5:21 LEB).

“Though (Jesus) was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich.” (2 Corin. 8:9 NLT).

The context of 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 is about money. Paul wants the Corinthians to give money so that Paul can give the money to other Christians. Paul even encourages them by saying, “God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others(9:8).” God will provide you with enough money for yourself and even with extra money left over so that you can give money to others. So simple and a child and understand this.

In this context Paul says, Jesus became poor FOR US, so that by His poverty we become rich. Poverty and wealth both deal with money directly, and the context is about giving money to Paul so that Paul can give the money to others. The only way to say this is not about money is to be delusional and unrighteous.

As is always the case, if you try to kill God’s promises, you end up pointing the shotgun at your own face. When you try to kill God’s promises, you cannot do it, without destroying your own salvation and spitting on the blood of Jesus Christ.

The idea of substitution is that someone takes my place for something. Notice this is the same apostle Paul, in the same Epistle, using the same substitutionary language for both sin and righteousness (chapter 5) and poverty and wealth (chapter 8).

That is, if Jesus being my poverty in exchange to give me His wealth is ineffective, or is not a substitutionary atonement, then Jesus being my sin to give me His righteousness is also in effective and cannot be a substitutionary atonement. Paul’s description of substitutionary atonement is the same for both instances and so neither can be separated from substitutionary atonement without destroying the other.

If you deny Jesus was a money substitution then you logically deny Jesus was a sin substitute. It is futile to attack the promises of wealth, if you must destroy your salvation and trample the blood of Christ in the process.