Tue, 13 September, 2005: Today’s Bible readings.

2 Corinthians 2:12:17

¹² When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was opened for me in the Lord, ¹³ my spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia.

¹⁴ 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. ¹⁵ For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, ¹⁶ to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? ¹⁷ 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.

In this chapter, Paul is writing about his great concern for the church at Corinth and the severe letter he had written to them. He is overjoyed at their reaction to the letter, but he had been very concerned about how they would receive it.

When Paul arrived at Troas, he had the opportunity to preach about Christ there, but because of his concern to meet Titus and hear about how the Corinthians had received his harsh letter, Paul continued on to join Titus and find out what had happened.

At this point, Paul now tells us that despite all the hardships and his great concern for the church, he considers himself to be in a triumphal procession. Just as conquorers would lead a procession into the conquored city, with the captives in trail, so Paul considers himself conquored by Christ, and being part of God’s triumphal procession.

Paul also tells us that he considers himself to be the aroma of Christ. But the aroma is different depending on who you are. For those who are being saved, it is the aroma of life. For those who are not saved, it is the aroma of death.

What do we learn from this?

Paul saw his preaching as having two different results. In his preaching of the condemnation of the law and the forgiveness of God’s grace in the gospel, Paul saw that this causes those who reject the message to smell death. They walk away from Paul’s preaching and they are either hardened in their sins, or they grow in their apprehension and fear of death. In either case, they smell the death of the condemnation that comes from the preaching of the law and its consequences. They do not repent, but continue in their sins. Therefore they smell death.

But to those who are broken by the law, and come to God in faith claiming the promises of the gospel, Paul’s preaching is the smell of life. They are born again, and they are drawn to God. The preaching of the law and gospel is beautiful to them, and although it causes pain in the revelation of their sin, that pain leads to repentance and forgiveness, which is beautiful. They are saved. They smell life.

And so we are both the smell of death to those ungodly around us as they sense their own condemnation before a holy God, and we are the smell life to the regenerate around us who sense the forgiveness that is in Jesus Christ.

Where is Christ in this passage?

We are the aroma of Christ. It is Christ who will judge everyone at the last day. He will condemn those who have not come to Him in faith. They will be consigned to eternal damnation and so to these people, the aroma of Christ is the aroma of judgment, condemntation and death.

But to the saved, the aroma of Christ is the aroma of life, because Jesus Christ is our Savour, and through faith in Him we are saved from our sins and are given eternal life.