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. WHO IS SUFFICIENT FOR THESE THINGS? -2 Corinthians2.14-16 (emphasis mine)
In the last post, I mentioned that Jesus came to smell… I also mentioned he takes our smell away.
We can choose to have our stench removed or not. We can even choose to have our stench removed and then go back to that same stench again and again (Proverbs 26.11).
But Jesus gives us a new smell. He came to the earth to experience our odour and then replace it. We will always smell, but what do you want to smell like?
The smell he gives us is more ambiguous than the one we had before he took ours upon himself. This new smell is different to the only two categories of people there are in the world: the saved and the unsaved.
To the saved, we have the potential to be the “fragrance from life to life”. As we go from glory to glory and strength to strength and his power is made perfect in our weakness and as we become less so he can become more… we are able to fill other’s nostrils with a perfume that fills the room.
This perfume comes from a new set of words, actions, growth in our foibles and Jesus’ triumph! Holy Spirit allows the fragrance to permeate everything… “who is sufficient for these things?”
But this smell is terrible to those who are dying. It forces them to decide what the aroma they are smelling is. When the “aroma of Christ to God” hits their nostrils, there are choices. they cannot stay neutral. So, either they continue from death to death and reject that the smell is good, or they ‘follow their nose’ and allow the introduction to Jesus to take place and let him draw them ‘by the nose’ into fullness of life.
Either way, those who know Jesus are called to spread this fragrance, leaving it behind in every corner of every room they enter, and leave the drawing by the nose to the one who is so adept at highlighting stench, and taking it away in a breath of splendour.
Father, help me to be a fragrance spreader. Holy Spirit, lead me to the places in my sphere of influence, that needs the aroma of Christ imparted. Who is sufficient for these things? Jesus, you make me so! Thank you for my new smell. Be blessed as I am used to be a blessing. So be it!