What’s that Smell?
“What’s that smell?” This is an unfortunately not too unfamiliar question sometimes followed by “Who did it?” Smell is a pungent part of our physical lives. But did you know there is a spiritual smell? Did you know that our lives put off an aroma to the One who gives life?
When outlining the sacrifices required in the Law, the Old Testament books of Leviticus and Numbers talk about the sacrifices being a “pleasing aroma” to the Lord. Of course we understand with the establishment of the New Covenant in Christ Jesus the ritual sacrifices commanded by the law are no longer necessary, or even desired. Jesus is the one and only sacrifice - once and for all. Through Jesus, we who now live under grace may offer our lives as living sacrifices to God.
Interestingly, it appears that our sacrifices have the same characteristic of scent to the Lord as the sacrifices made in the Old Testament. God receives an obedient, devoted life as a pleasing fragrance. In 2 Corinthians 2:14 Paul describes this fragrance as being part of a “triumphal procession”, spreading “the knowledge of Him [Jesus] everywhere” through the devoted life.
One of the characteristics of an emitted scent is that it goes everywhere. It permeates and saturates. There is no stopping a strong smell. A strong aroma can even linger for long periods of time. God chooses smell as the descriptive characteristic of His people’s sacrifice because He wants us to understand that our sacrifice has lasting results. The aroma saturates and lingers long after our presence has left a place.
Another very important characteristic of smell is that it evokes a response from the smeller. Aroma, whether good or bad, elicits an immediate response from the one who smells it. Walk into a home where chocolate chip cookies are being baked, your mouth starts watering. Walk into a home where a chain smoker has lived, your lunges revolt. Smells make people respond.
In 2 Corinthians, Paul says the aroma of Christ in us goes out among “those who are being saved” and “those who are perishing”. To one group the fragrance is from “death to death” and to the other it is from “life to life”. The spiritual aroma emitted from the sacrifice of a devoted life does indeed command a response from those in the world. Whether the response is to reject the truth of Jesus Christ and to die or to receive that truth and live eternally, there is a response by those who experience the aroma.
But here is the beautiful thing, Paul states “For we are the aroma of Christ to God”. The sacrifices conducted under the Old Testament law carried an imperfect aroma. While the fragrance may have been pleasing since it was emitted from an act of obedience, the sacrifice was not complete. It was imperfect. BUT NOW - we who have received Jesus Christ into our hearts and have devoted our lives to Him, carry a different aroma. Our sacrifice no longer has the taint of imperfection. Jesus’ sacrifice is the aroma that fills the nostrils of God when we live in obedience to Him. Jesus has applied the eternal chocolate chip cookie baking fragrance to our imperfect aroma and we are an everlasting, pleasing fragrance to God Almighty. Praise be to His name.