fragrance – Moment to Moment (Bible blog)

The grace shown us in ministry

It’s been a slow week in terms of blogging for me this week. I suppose I shouldn’t feel bad about it since I made no guarantees about how often I would blog.

I think that for me, this has been a week for chewing on the Word, which makes for good meditation, but not necessarily for blogging. (I have no idea if that makes any sense or not).

One thing I’m chewing on is this passage from 2 Corinthians.

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in Christ’s triumphal procession and through us spreads the aroma of the knowledge of him in every place.

For to God we are the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.

To some we are an aroma of death leading to death, but to others, an aroma of life leading to life. (2 Corinthians 2:14-16)

Paul tells us here that when God sees us in the midst of the unbelievers around us, he smells the aroma of Christ in us.

That’s an amazing thing when I think about it. Why would I have the fragrance of Christ, when there is still so much sin in me?

A single word: Grace.

The grace that God pours out on me through the cross of Christ.

It is not that I intrinsically bear the fragrance of Christ. But his grace has so been poured out on me, that to God, it fills whatever room that I am in.

And when I preach the word to those around me, they sense that grace in me as well. To some, it is the fragrance of life. To others, it is the stench of death.

But to God, in Christ, I am a sweet-smelling fragrance to him.

Paul then says in chapter 3,

Such is the confidence we have through Christ before God.

It is not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God.

He has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (2 Corinthians 3:4-6)

So often, I look at myself, and I don’t see myself as that fragrance that God sees me as. I see all my frailties and weaknesses. And yet, by his grace, God makes me competent to make a difference in the lives of the people around me.

Because the thing is, it’s not I who gives people life. It’s the Spirit of God living in me that does that.

All I have to do is what Paul did:

Speak with sincerity in Christ,

as from God and

before God. (2:17)

And God will do the rest.

It is very similar, in fact, to what Paul said in chapter 1.

The testimony of our conscience is that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you, with godly sincerity and purity, not by human wisdom but by God’s grace. (2 Corinthians 1:12)

I don’t know about you, but that’s how I want to be. That’s how I want to live.

Living in godly sincerity.

Living in purity.

Living not in worldly wisdom that leads to jealousy, selfish ambition, and boasting (James 3:14).

But living by grace.

And it is that grace that will make a difference not only in us, but in the lives we touch.

May we live each day walking in that grace.

The fragrance of life, the stench of death

As Christians, there will never be a point in time when everyone will like us.

Jesus was perfect, and still people hated him. Why?

Because of the aroma that flows out from Christ.

Paul says something very interesting here in this passage.

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.

For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. (2 Corinthians 2:14-16)

The picture here is of a Roman general leading his troops in a victory parade. And among those following him were the priests who would scatter sweet smelling incense out onto the streets.

For those celebrating the victory, it was the fragrance of life and victory. But to those who were in chains, it was the stench of their own death staring them in the face.

In the same way, we are God’s priests, following our General who won the victory at the cross.

And as we spread the fragrance of the knowledge of him, to those who are saved and to those who hear the message and believe, we are the smell of ultimate victory and life.

But there are many others who hear what we say, and to them, it has the stench of death.

Why? Because it shows them their sin, and it shows them where their sin is leading them: to eternal damnation in hell. And they hate it.

They hate their sin being called sin. And they hate the idea that they will be held accountable for it. To them, Jesus is the stench of death leading them to their own death (HCSB).

And because Jesus is in us, we become that stench to them as well.

To many others, however, Jesus is the fragrance of life leading to life eternal (HCSB). And so when they see Christ in us, we become the fragrance of life to them as well.

I love the words of Jim Elliot who once said,

Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision.

Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me.

How about you? When people see you, do they encounter the fragrance of Christ?

And are they forced to make a choice, turning one way or another, to eternal life or eternal death, on facing Christ in you?