WHO ARE WE PART 3-2 A FRAGRANCE OF CHRIST
The Character of a Ministry Born of the Revelation of Jesus Christ
Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 2:14–17
1. A FRAGRANCE OF CHRIST BEGINS WITH GOD LEADING US IN TRIUMPH IN CHRIST
II. A FRAGRANCE OF CHRIST MANIFESTED THROUGH BEING CONQUERED BY CHRIST TO KNOW CHRIST
Paul's illustration would have been very familiar to the people of his day.
When a Roman general returned victorious from war, he entered the city in a triumphal procession. Behind his chariot walked the captives whom he had conquered.
Those captives were the visible evidence of the general's victory. They declared to everyone that the battle had already been won.
Paul saw himself in that procession.
Christ was the victorious General.
Paul was the conquered captive.
As he later testified,
"When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive" (Eph. 4:8).
But Paul was more than merely a conquered prisoner. He became a man who continually came to know the One who had conquered him.
The victory of Christ over Paul was not a single event on the Damascus road; it became the governing principle of his entire life. Every fresh victory of Christ over Paul's natural life brought Paul into a deeper knowledge of Christ.
On the Damascus road, Christ conquered his rebellion.
In Arabia, Christ taught him apart from men.
Throughout his sufferings, Christ revealed His sufficient grace.
In every weakness, Paul discovered the power of Christ resting upon him.
In every affliction, he learned more of the fellowship of Christ's sufferings.
In every experience of death, he came to know more of the power of Christ's resurrection.
Thus, Paul's knowledge of Christ did not grow merely by studying truths about Christ. It grew because the victorious Christ continually gained more ground in him.
This is the significance of "the knowledge of Christ" in 2 Corinthians 2:14.
The knowledge Paul speaks of is not simply the recognition that Christ is Lord. It is not merely objective doctrine or theological understanding. It is a living, experiential knowledge—gnosis—formed as Christ repeatedly conquered, corrected, emptied, humbled, strengthened, and possessed His servant.
Every fresh surrender became a fresh revelation.
Every fresh revelation became a deeper knowledge.
Every deeper knowledge became a richer fragrance.
This explains why Paul could say elsewhere,
"That I may know Him..." (Phil. 3:10).
Paul had already seen the glorified Christ on the Damascus road. Yet he did not regard that revelation as complete. The Christ who had conquered him continued throughout his life to reveal Himself in ever-deeper ways. The knowledge of Christ was progressive because the government of Christ over Paul's life was progressive.
The transformed life of Paul became the evidence of this growing knowledge.
Pride gave way to humility.
Self-confidence gave way to dependence upon Christ.
Religious zeal gave way to obedience to the Spirit.
His confidence in the flesh gave way to boasting only in the cross.
The persecutor became the prisoner of Christ.
These changes were not produced by self-improvement. They were the fruit of continually coming to know the victorious Christ.
This is why the fragrance followed the triumph.
The fragrance was not produced because Paul tried to imitate Christ.
Nor was it produced because he possessed greater biblical knowledge than others. The fragrance never has been produced by manufacturing.
The fragrance was the spontaneous manifestation of the Christ whom Paul had progressively come to know as the victorious Lord gained more and more of his life.
Before Christ could be manifested through Paul, Christ first had to be known by Paul.
And before Christ could be known more deeply, Christ had first to conquer Paul more completely.
Thus the progression of the New Covenant ministry is wonderfully simple:
Christ conquers the vessel.
The conquered vessel comes to know Christ more deeply.
The knowledge of Christ becomes the fragrance of Christ manifested to others.
Every fresh victory of Christ over Paul's natural life became a fresh knowledge of Christ, and every fresh knowledge of Christ became a fresh and more saturated fragrance of Christ.
One of the greatest lessons of church history is that the decline of the church never begins with the loss of doctrine; it begins with the loss of the living knowledge of Christ. In many periods, the church continued to preserve sound creeds, orthodox confessions, and biblical terminology. The truths remained, but the living Person gradually receded behind the truths. What had once been revelation became tradition. What had once been living fellowship became inherited teaching. The church still possessed the correct words, but it no longer carried the fragrance that those words were meant to express.
This is the tragedy of second-hand knowledge. Every generation can inherit the experiences, writings, and testimonies of those who have gone before. We thank God for faithful servants throughout the centuries, for they have left us a rich spiritual inheritance. Yet their revelation can never replace our own revelation of Christ. No generation can live on yesterday’s mana, on yesterday's experience. The Christ whom Paul knew through continual surrender and fresh dealings of the Cross must also become the Christ whom we ourselves know. Otherwise, the ministry gradually becomes the repetition of truths rather than the manifestation of Christ. We may faithfully preserve the fragrance bottle, yet the fragrance itself has disappeared.
This is why every genuine recovery in church history has begun in the same way: God has once again revealed His Son. Whether in the apostolic age, the Reformation, the evangelical awakenings, the Brethren movement, or other spiritual renewals, the real turning point was never merely the recovery of a doctrine or truth. It was that men and women were freshly conquered by the victorious Christ, came into a deeper and more living knowledge of Him, and therefore once again manifested the fragrance of Christ. The church is never renewed merely by recovering correct teaching; she is renewed when Christ Himself becomes once again the living, present, and progressively known Lord of His people.