Smelling Good to God

From a recent quiet time. I explain quiet time here.

Look: “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, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.” (2 Corinthians 2:14-16a)

The passage from which these words are taken is shot through with both humility and confidence, each born of faith in God.

Paul has just said in vv. 12-13, that while God had opened the door for he and his team to do ministry in Troas, he’d felt uneasy while there owing to his inability to find Titus. This dovetails with what he talked about in 1 Corinthians 16:9: Even when God opens doors for us to follow Him, there can also be troubles when we walk through them. We can be in “triumphal procession” with God and still encounter troubles, whether sadness, opposition, or difficulties of other kinds.

I believe that Paul truly took to heart what Jesus says: “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). I can be following the path laid out for me by God in Christ and still be subjected to sorrow and death. In fact, if I follow Jesus, nothing is more likely; after all, this is precisely the path Jesus took. There is no Easter without Good Friday.

Our procession is triumphal, whatever comes our ways, because it follows Christ, not because we’re all that.

And for reasons known truly only to God (though we may speculate), it’s through believers in Jesus that God spreads the fragrance of “the knowledge of Him everywhere.” Then Paul says: “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing…”

“Aroma to God” reminds me of the incense offered to God in the ancient temple in Jerusalem. Incense was meant to carry people’s prayers, sacrifices, worship, and commitment to faith offered to God. Paul says that believers in Christ are like incense lifting praises, prayers, and surrender to God through their lives.

When we read about such offerings being made, we might think of the people of God gathered for worship, times together with the Church when we confess sin and receive God’s forgiveness, sing God’s praises, hear God’s Word, and receive the gift of life in the Sacraments. And, according to Paul, worship with God’s people is one place in which we are to be “the aroma of Christ” to God. We’re to be this when we are “among those who are being saved.”

But we are also to be the aroma of Christ after we’ve left Christian worship “among those who are perishing,” among those who don’t know or refuse to receive Christ and His gracious offer of new, everlasting life with God. In other words, we’re to keep offering ourselves to the purposes of God, the glory of God, and the sharing of Christ, in our everyday lives with everyone.

Paul doesn’t sugarcoat things either. People will perceive the Christ we share with our lives, actions, and words differently. Some will perceive the “aroma of Christ” as “a fragrance from death to death” and others as “a fragrance from life to life.” Or, as these words are rendered in The Message translation/paraphrase: “Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on the way of salvation—an aroma redolent with life. But those on the way to destruction treat us more like the stench from a rotting corpse.”

In other words, the good news of new life through the crucified and risen Jesus, will seem like death to some people. And they’re right in that it is a death to the dead life of sin into which we’re born and which spells an instant death sentence for every human being absent the gracious intervention of Jesus.

But to those open to the Holy Spirit’s proclamation of this message through us, this good news, this gospel (this aroma of Christ), even as it spells the death of this old dead life, it will be perceived that life with Christ moves us from life with God here and now to life with God in full perfection in eternity. From life to life.

Paul writes elsewhere: “...the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).

And Jesus says to Martha, grieving for her brother, Lazarus: ““I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11:25-26)

Listen: Intentionality about being the “aroma of Christ” is important, of course. Jesus says, “You will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). I need to take that as His will for my life as a disciple, wherever I may be.

But I also know how little good my good intentions do when push comes to shove. That’s especially true when it comes to doing the things God wants me to do. Like Paul, I confess that the force of sin that lives in me scores easy victories over my good intentions and sincere resolutions: “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Romans 7:19).

If I’m going to make good on being the “aroma of Christ” to God among all sorts of people, my good intentions and heartfelts resolutions will do no good. I need to take to heart Jesus’ words: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

Being the aroma of Christ in the world will seem compelling to some and repulsive to others. If I focus solely on people’s reactions to me following Christ, I’ll lose the aroma of Christ. I’ll be like Peter, full of faith when he asked Jesus to call him to walk on the stormy water with him, but full of fear when I lose my focus on Christ and look, instead, to my circumstances.

If I don’t take a shower every day, I won’t have a very compelling scent any longer. And if I don’t spend time with Christ every day, I’ll lose the scent of Christ and His sacrificial offering for me in my life.

I need to keep bathing in Christ. I need to spend time with Him. I need to worship with the Church, read His Word, receive the Sacraments, and spend alone time--quiet time--with the God revealed in Christ.

As we abide or remain connected to Christ, it won’t be us but Christ that people “smell” in us.

And if some don’t like the scent, they may let us know. But we won’t be shaken because we know through our constant fellowship with God revealed in Christ to Whom we belong. The only one to Whom we need to smell good is God...and all who turn from sin and trust in Christ and His righteousness rather than their own, smell very good to God, covered in the sweet aroma of Christ.

Respond: I need to remember all of this because I have a tendency to be a people-pleaser. My antennae are particularly attuned to others’ reactions to me. Lord, free me from the worries to which this can give rise. Free me from the temptation to compromise your truth and to blend in with my surroundings that this creates in me. Help me to stay grounded in You so that today, my life will be an offering to You no matter who I may meet. In Jesus’ name.

[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]