"An Aroma from Life to Life."

“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. to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 2:14-17 ESV)

Paul starts Chapter 2 with an interesting bit of history. It seems that after he wrote 1 Corinthians, he paid a personal visit to these believers, where he confronted them on several issues face-to-face and wrote another letter (his 3^rd), which is called his “sorrowful” letter. In verse 4, he states, “For out of much affection and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears; not that you should be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have especially for you.” Paul’s practice and exhortation to church leadership have always been to teach, correct, admonish when necessary, but always to do it out of love, so the recipients know that the correction they receive is out of love for them. A very important truth for the church today. All too often, when a church exercises its God-given responsibility to correct ungodly behavior in the congregation, it is not out of love for the individual or to restore that person to fellowship.

In verses 14-16, Paul starts using an analogy that is foreign to us but very common in the 1st-century Roman world. He sets the scene of a ceremonial parade in which the conquering army marches down the city's main street, displaying their victory to the crowds. Censers of incense were used to fill the city with a sweet fragrance along the parade route. This was a picture that these believers would have understood immediately. Dr. MacArthur states in his Study Bible, “Continuing his analogy, Paul pictured God as the emperor at the end of the Triumph who also smells the pervasive fragrance and is pleased with the victorious efforts it represents. Where God’s servant is faithful and is an influence for the gospel, God is pleased.”

“The sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.” (v14). Then Paul states in v15 “For we are a fragrance of Christ to God…” and in v16 “to the other an aroma from life to life”. To those who are being saved through faith in the finished work of Christ, the gospel message is a “sweet aroma” of life. We understand the power of the gospel of Grace’s message, and we appreciate the power it has to change a broken life into a productive life serving our risen Savior. But to those who have not accepted the truth of grace-based salvation, this message is a “disgusting odor” of death.

The Gospel of the saving grace of Jesus Christ has that effect on people, doesn’t it? Either when proclaimed people either say “Amen” with a personal experience of God’s saving Grace, or they say “Ridiculous, how could this be, that God would allow His own son to die in my place for the sins that I have committed. Salvation has to be worked for.” The first response is “life unto life”, and the latter is “death to death”. So, as we accept the privilege of sharing this life-saving gospel, let’s remember that God knows our faithfulness, and that our faithfulness to this Gospel is the fragrance of Christ’s work on the cross, a sweet aroma of life to life.

"Living in Grace is not about what I can do, but about what Jesus has already done!"