WHO ARE WE PART 3-3 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
III. A FRAGRANCE OF CHRIST IS NOT MERELY PRODUCED BY CHRIST, BUT ALSO THE CAPTURED BECOME THE SAVOR
“For we are unto God a fragrance of Christ...” (2 Cor. 2:15)
There is a very important change in Paul’s language between verses 14 and 15.
In verse 14, Paul gives us the picture of a triumphal procession. Christ is the victorious General, and Paul is one of the captives whom God leads in Christ’s triumph. Through these conquered captives, God manifests “the savor of the knowledge of Christ in every place.”
But when Paul comes to verse 15, he takes the thought one step further. He does not say merely, “We spread the fragrance of Christ.” He says:
“We are unto God a fragrance of Christ.”
“The figure shifts; the apostolic teachers themselves being represented as an odor, their Christian personality redolent of Christ. It is not merely a sweet odor produced by Christ, but Christ Himself is the savor which exhales in their character and work.” (Vincent’s Word Studies)
The captive has become the fragrance.
This is something much deeper than preaching a message about Christ. God’s purpose is not merely that we should carry something called “the fragrance of Christ,” as though the fragrance were something separate from us. Through His dealings with us, His revelation of Christ in us, and the transforming work of the Holy Spirit, God works Christ into the vessel until something of Christ Himself is expressed through that vessel.
The Principle of Incarnation
We can see a profound principle here which begins with Christ Himself.
John says:
“The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us... full of grace and truth” (Joh. 1:14).
Paul says:
“Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16).
In Christ, the invisible God became visible. God is Light, God is Love; Light and Love are invisible, but when the Word became flesh and dwelt among men, Love and Light became Grace and Truth, manifested in the flesh, they are visible – we beheld His glory (Joh. 1:14)Apostle testified furthermore that concerning the Word of life, they have heard , have seen with their eyes, beheld, and have handled with their hands (1Jn. 1:1).
Men could not see God, but they could see Jesus Christ. They could hear Him speak. They could observe how He treated sinners, how He responded to opposition, how He loved, how He obeyed the Father, and how He went to the cross.
Therefore John could say:
“We beheld His glory.”
The Word did not merely tell people about grace and truth. He was “full of grace and truth.” Grace and truth had taken visible expression in a Man.
Of course, we must distinguish Christ’s unique incarnation from our experience. We do not become Christ, and we do not become another incarnation of God in the full and perfect meaning of Christ. Yet the spiritual principle of divine life finding expression through a human vessel continues in the New Testament ministry. The Christ who was manifested in the flesh now dwells in His people by the Holy Spirit, and God desires that this indwelling Christ should become visible through them.
This is why Paul can say:
“We are a fragrance of Christ.”
The Vessel Is Not the Source of the Fragrance
This does not mean that Paul himself became the source of the fragrance.
Paul is still only the vessel.
Christ remains the source.
This becomes clearer in chapter 3, where Paul gives us another picture:
“But we all, with unveiled face beholding and reflecting as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18).
Think of a mirror standing in the light.
The mirror has no light in itself. Remove the light, and the mirror becomes dark. But when the mirror is turned toward the light, the light fills it and is reflected from it.
When people look into that mirror, what they see is the light.
The mirror has not become the source of the light, but the mirror and the light have become so united in expression that the light is now seen through the mirror.
This helps us understand the New Testament ministry.
Christ Himself is the true image and expression of the invisible God. He could say:
“He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9).
Christ expresses the Father. We, in turn, behold and reflect Christ. And as we behold and reflect Christ, the Holy Spirit transforms us into His image so that we increasingly reflect and express Him.
Therefore the progression is:
God is expressed in Christ.
We behold and reflect Christ.
The Holy Spirit transforms us into the image of Christ.
Christ is then reflected and expressed through us.
The vessel never becomes the source, but the vessel increasingly bears the character of the One whom it beholds.
The Fragrance Is the Result of Transformation
This brings us back to the triumphal procession.
First, Christ conquers the vessel.
Then, as the conquered vessel walks under the government of Christ, he comes into an ever-deepening knowledge of Christ.
But God does not stop there.
The Christ whom we know begins to be formed in us.
His humility touches our pride.
His meekness replaces our harshness.
His dependence upon the Father judges our self-sufficiency.
His obedience deals with our independence.
His love touches our coldness.
His cross deals with our natural strength.
His resurrection life becomes our inward supply.
This is the transforming work of the Holy Spirit.
Paul says:
“We... are transformed into the same image from glory to glory... by the Spirit of the Lord.”
Therefore, when Paul says, “We are unto God a sweet savor of Christ,” he is describing something that God has wrought into the vessel.
The captive has been conquered.
The captive has come to know Christ.
The captive has beheld and reflected Christ.
The captive has been transformed by the Spirit.
And now the captive himself has become, unto God, a fragrance of the One who conquered him.
So the progression becomes:
Conquered by Christ → Knowing Christ → Beholding and reflecting Christ → Transformed into Christ’s image → Becoming unto God the fragrance of Christ.
“Unto God”—The Background of the Sweet-Savor Offerings
At this point another aspect of Paul’s language becomes very significant.
The Roman triumphal procession helps us understand the picture of the conquered captive and the spreading fragrance. But when Paul says,
“We are unto God a fragrance of Christ,”
his language also recalls the Old Testament offerings that ascended before God as a “sweet savor,” or a satisfying aroma.
This expression occurs repeatedly in Leviticus, especially in connection with the burnt offering, the meal offering, and the peace offering.
These offerings present different aspects of Christ, but they have one thing in common: something rises to God in which God finds pleasure and satisfaction.
The fragrance is first unto God.
That is very important.
The first question concerning our lives and ministry is not, “Are people impressed?” It is not even, “Are people helped?” The first question is:
Does God smell something of His Son?
The Burnt Offering - Christ Wholly for God
In Leviticus 1, the burnt offering was placed upon the altar and offered wholly to God as “a sweet savor unto the Lord.”
The emphasis is upon complete surrender to God.
In type, it points us to Christ as the One whose whole life was absolutely for the Father.
He could say:
“I do always those things that please Him” (John 8:29).
From Bethlehem to Calvary, Christ lived wholly unto God. His thoughts, His words, His actions, His time, His strength, and finally His very life were given to accomplish the Father’s will.
Paul uses this same fragrance language concerning Christ in Ephesians 5:2:
“Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.”
Notice carefully:
He gave Himself - to God.
This is the true fragrance.
Therefore, when Paul says, “We are unto God a fragrance of Christ,” something of the burnt-offering character of Christ can be seen in the transformed vessel.
It does not mean that our consecration adds anything to Christ’s perfect sacrifice. It means that the absolute devotion of Christ to His Father is increasingly reproduced in us by the Holy Spirit.
The conquered captive begins to say:
“My life is no longer my own.”
“My ministry is not my own.”
“My future is not my own.”
“My reputation is not my own.”
“I belong to the One who conquered me.”
When God finds something of His Son’s obedience and wholehearted devotion reproduced in His people, there is a fragrance unto God.
The Meal Offering - The Beautiful and Balanced Humanity of Christ
Leviticus 2 presents the meal, or grain, offering.
It was made of fine flour, with oil and frankincense, and without leaven. A memorial portion was burned upon the altar as “a sweet savor unto the Lord,” while the remainder belonged to the priests.
In type, it beautifully presents the perfect and balanced humanity of Christ.
The fine flour suggests the evenness and balance of His humanity. There was nothing coarse, excessive, distorted, or unbalanced in Him.
He was strong, but never harsh.
Tender, but never weak.
Bold, but never self-assertive.
Compassionate, yet never governed by mere human sentiment.
He was full of grace and truth.
The oil reminds us of the Holy Spirit, and the frankincense particularly emphasizes that which ascended from His life in resurrection for God’s pleasure.
What a fragrance there was in the humanity of Jesus!
And now the Holy Spirit seeks to form something of this same Christ in us.
When pressure comes, what comes out?
When we are contradicted, what is manifested?
When someone misunderstands us, what fragrance rises?
If irritation, self-defense, pride, harshness, and resentment come forth, that is our natural man.
But when under the same pressure something of the patience, meekness, grace, truthfulness, and purity of Christ appears, God recognizes the fragrance of His Son.
The meal offering reminds us that the fragrance of Christ is not manifested only in great acts of sacrifice. It appears in the daily humanity of a person in whom Christ is being formed.
The Peace Offering - Christ as Our Peace and Fellowship
Then in Leviticus 3 we have the peace offering.
This offering has a distinctive character of fellowship and shared enjoyment. God's portion was offered upon the altar, breast and shoulder portions were given to the priests, and in the fuller regulations of the peace offering the worshiper also shared in the sacrificial meal.
It speaks beautifully of Christ as the ground of peace, fellowship, and mutual satisfaction between God and His people.
Through Christ, hostility has been removed. God and man can live together harmonized. There is peace between God and man, there is peace among men.
God has His portion.
His people have their portion.
And both meet in the enjoyment of Christ.
This also has an expression in the church.
When people who naturally could not live together are brought under the government of Christ, when self-interest is laid down, when forgiveness replaces resentment, when love replaces rivalry, and when the saints enjoy Christ together in genuine fellowship, there is again something that rises to God as a sweet fragrance.
It is not human harmony produced by compatible personalities.
It is Christ our peace being expressed corporately.
God smells His Son in the fellowship of His people.
Paul the Captive - and Paul the Living Sacrifice
Now the two pictures come together.
In the Roman picture, Paul is a conquered captive being led in Christ’s triumph.
In the Levitical picture, Paul is a man whose life has become something offered unto God as the fragrance of Christ.
He is conquered by Christ, but he is also being conformed to Christ.
His chains, sufferings, surrender, service, and even his weakness become the setting in which something of Christ rises before God.
This helps us understand Romans 12:1:
“Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God...”
The victorious Christ has captured the saints in Roman, and the captured saints now belongs wholly to God.
Something of the burnt offering appears - Christ’s wholehearted devotion to God.
Something of the meal offering appears - Christ’s beautiful and balanced humanity.
Something of the peace offering appears - Christ as the peace and fellowship of God’s people.
Yet Paul and saints in Roman are never the source of any of these things. They joined in Christ and became one with Him.
Christ is the reality of every offering.
The Holy Spirit simply works that Christ into the conquered vessel until God can smell in the vessel something of the Son in whom He is completely satisfied.
This gives much greater weight to Paul's words:
“We are unto God a fragrance of Christ.”
The fragrance is not first for man.
It is first for God; it is unto God.
Before anyone is helped by our ministry, before anyone appreciates our service, before anyone responds positively to our testimony, God Himself is looking for the fragrance of His Son.
When People Come Near Us, What Do They Sense?
This brings the matter very close to us.
The question is no longer simply:
What do we preach?
Nor even:
What truths do we know?
The deeper question is:
When people come near us, what do they sense?
When they spend time with us, do they sense our strong personality, or do they sense Christ?
When they disagree with us, do they meet our natural reaction, or do they touch something of the meekness of Christ?
When we are misunderstood, do they encounter our self-defense, or something of the Lamb?
When we are under pressure, do they smell anxiety, frustration, bitterness, and self-preservation; or do they sense the quiet fragrance of a life resting in Christ?
Do they find something of the burnt offering - a life belonging wholly to God?
Do they find something of the meal offering - the gracious, balanced humanity of Christ?
Do they find something of the peace offering - the peace and fellowship that Christ alone can produce?
When we minister the Word, do people merely receive information about Christ, or do they encounter something of the Christ of whom we speak?
This is the test of the New Testament ministry.
A ministry of revelation does not merely explain Christ.
It does not merely scatter information about Christ.
It does not even merely carry the fragrance of Christ.
Through the conquering work of Christ, the progressive knowledge of Christ, the beholding and reflecting of Christ, and the transforming work of the Holy Spirit, the vessel itself becomes unto God a fragrance of Christ.
The greatest testimony of the New Covenant ministry, therefore, is not:
“Listen to what I know about Christ.”
It is:
“Come near, and may you encounter something of the Christ who has conquered me, whom I have come to know, whom I behold and reflect, and into whose image the Holy Spirit is transforming me.”
And behind all of this is an even deeper question:
When God looks upon my life, does He find something that reminds Him of His beloved Son?
That is the meaning of becoming unto God a fragrance of Christ.