“But thanks
be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through
us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the
aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are
perishing,” 2 Corinthians 2:14-15
Do you realize that as believers we
have been saved to spread the fragrance of Christ everywhere we go? This aroma
is spread through the proclamation of the gospel, but also through the
transformation that God has wrought in Christ in our lives as believers through
the Spirit.
My wife never leaves the house
without spraying on one of her many perfumes. My wife, who teaches 3-year old’s,
has shared with me that her students, who she loves and gives a lot of hugs too,
love smelling her. On more than one occasion, some of her students have asked her
if they could hug her just to be able to smell her fragrance. Once she received
a call from a mom of one of her students asking what perfume she wears because
she could smell it on her child and loved it. On the other hand, she told
me once that a fellow co-worker expressed to her that she thought she wore too
much perfume.
Similarly, as Christians, those who get close enough to us or
who allow us to get close to them, ought to have similar reactions. If you are
close to Christ, some will smell your sacrificial love for God and be drawn to
it. Others will smell this sacrificial love and despised it.
John Piper writes, “Some
people smell the sacrificial love of Christ in the life of a missionary and it
only smells like death. They hear the gospel and all they hear is death. They
look at the cross and all they see is death. They see no life. No hope. No
future. No joy. And so, they turn away. And if they turn away forever, they
die. They are the perishing. The smell of death leads to death. That’s the
heart-breaking side of missions. They are people who don’t believe. They don’t
see Christ as precious. They don’t see his suffering as a treasure. They don’t
smell his death for sinners as the sweetest fragrance in the universe. It’s not
a satisfying fragrance. It’s simply the smell of death. But there is the
heart-rejoicing side of missions. Verse 16: “to one a fragrance from death to
death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.” Those who are being saved
smell the death of Christ as the aroma of life. They see in his death the
substitute that they so desperately need before God. The Son of God dying in
their place is the fragrance of life. So, they don’t turn away. They believe
him and receive him and embrace him and treasure him and they live — forever.
Smelling Christ as the aroma of life gives life.”
Once again, this aroma of Christ is spread through the
proclamation of the gospel, but also through the transformation that God has
wrought in our lives as believers through Christ. People close to us should
not only hear about the sacrificial love of Jesus demonstrated on the cross,
but they ought to smell it on our lives as followers of Jesus. Our lives ought to
be to some a pleasing, appealing and attracting aroma for Christ. And this ought to be so, not from a distance, but the closer others get to us. However, this will not be so if we are
not close to Jesus—if we are not drawing near to Christ.
My wife’s students smell like her. Parents have not only called her
about her perfume rubbing off on their children, they’ve called her to express
their gratitude for how her love has rubbed off on their 3-year-old in a way
that has impacted their home. They remind their parents that, “we need to thank
God before we have dinner.” One parent called to tell my wife that during dinner
their child ask if Christ was their savior. And then proceeded to share with
them, "Jesus loves us so much that He died for our sin so that we could be
saved and live with Him forever.” One parent said, “I have to start reading the
bible more because our child comes home and shares the bible stories that he’s
learning and sadly, I don’t know some of them.” One of the most impactful
things parents have shared with my wife is how amazed they are that their child
not only obeys my wife, but they want to please her. One parent asked, “how do you
do it Mrs. David?” She responded, “I don’t only expect first time obedience,
and discipline them in love when they don’t obey the first time, I teach them
that God, who loves them, expects it and is sad when they don’t obey. In addition,
I love on them.”
Similarly, if we are going to be the aroma of Christ so that it rubs
off on others, we must be close enough to Jesus for the fragrance of His sacrificial
love to rub off on us—to transform us. Paul wrote, "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same
image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the
Spirit” (2 Cor 3:17-18).
When Moses talked with God face to face, afterwards
he wore a veil over his face to hide the fading glory that was shining on His
face. The fading glory and the veil were symbolic of the weakness of the law to
bring men to God, compared to the sufficiency of the grace of God in Christ to
bring them near to God through the Spirit.
Today, because of the finished work of Christ, we
can draw near to God in prayer and He promises to draw near to us. We can
behold His glory in the Word through the illumination of the Spirit and be
transformed into the image of Christ from one degree of glory to another for the world to see and smell.
O may we seek daily to be perfumed by the love of
Jesus and spread His fragrance through our words and actions to those around us
that desperately need to know the love of Jesus.
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