I was putting on my makeup one morning when my oldest son came in to ask a question. As we stood chatting, he began to look at my perfume bottles, opening a few to catch a whiff of the scent.
“Mom, this one smells like you!” he exclaimed. I was rather humored by the statement since they were all my perfumes, but when I looked at the one he was holding my heart swelled. It was my wedding day perfume, given to me by my mom and still my husband’s favorite. I’ve repurchased it a couple of times over the years, because although I’ve added a few other lovely scents to my collection, I always come back to this one.
But until my son’s comment, I didn’t realize just how “signature” it had become, even to my kids. Rather than describing the scent or saying it smelled nice, he simply said, “It smells like you.” And his discovery, to my joy, delighted him.
A Recognizable Scent
This sweet interaction with my son reminded me of the words in 2 Corinthians 2:14–15.
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in Christ’s triumphal procession and through us spreads the aroma of the knowledge of him in every place. For to God we are the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.
We believers bear a fragrance once we’ve been born again: the fragrance of Christ. He has a characteristic “scent,” which is the one we now bear.
When someone says that it smells like rain, we all know what that means. Or around this time of year we might hear someone exclaim, “It smells like fall!” When we hear those words, most of us assume it means some blend of fallen leaves, cinnamon, apple cider, pumpkin, and firewood. But the speaker doesn’t have to list all of those elements to be understood; just saying that it smells like fall is usually sufficient.
In the same way, when we hear the words “the aroma of Christ,” we should know in a moment what that phrase encompasses (especially since this is our “aroma” now, if we’ve been saved by Christ). To know that, we need to know Him at an ever-deepening level. We need to dedicate time to understanding who Jesus is according to Scripture—to immerse ourselves in “the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God!” (Rom. 11:33), so that we understand the scent we’re known by.
A Pleasing Aroma
One of the most stunning aspects of the verse above is who delights the most in the fragrance we carry: God.
It’s interesting to consider the fact that in the Old Testament, many offerings were burnt “as a pleasing aroma to the Lord.” (See Gen. 8:21; Ex. 29:18; Lev. 2:2, 4:31, 6:14, 17:6.) Jesus fulfilled the purpose of these Old Testament sacrifices for our sin through His death on the cross (Heb. 10:1–12). This is a sacrifice that never loses its power and always carries with it the aroma of Christ’s love, mercy, forgiveness, justice, and authority. It’s an everlasting “pleasing aroma.”
What an honor to carry the fragrance of the Son in whom the Father delights.
This aroma isn’t meant to be contained; it’s meant to be spread to those who are lost. Some will notice it and be drawn to it. They’ll come to desire Christ through our lives, recognizing His beauty and goodness. Others, however, will be repulsed by it because Christ, and all He is, repulses them (2 Cor. 2:16). Only God knows which hearts will respond in which direction. All we have to do is be faithful bearers of the aroma and trust Him with the outcome.
One reason it’s so important to continually reject the temptation to sin is because it reeks of the death in which we were once lost. When we choose to sin rather than walk in the Spirit, it’s like lathering on that old stench, covering up the scent of our new life in Christ. The old, corrupted self is to be “taken off” and is to be replaced by the “new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of truth” (Eph. 4:22–24).
How can we bring this truth of being the aroma of Christ from our heads down into our hearts, and express it more deeply through our lives?
Knowing the Aroma of Christ
In the midst of the noise and temptations and ungodliness that swirl around us, we must constantly remind ourselves of who we are in Christ. This means returning again and again to the Word to study who Jesus is and, therefore, what our lives are to be marked by. We need to be experts on the scent that we bear—and are to spread—to this broken world.
The Epistles bring clarity to this, and we’d do well to dwell on these truths continually to combat the messages from the world, the flesh, and the devil that would try to distract and deceive us from the purity of the gospel. Here are two beautiful passages to meditate on:
Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful. (Colossians 3:12–15)
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.
Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus,
who, existing in the form of God,
did not consider equality with God
as something to be exploited.
Instead he emptied himself
by assuming the form of a servant,
taking on the likeness of humanity.
And when he had come as a man,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient
to the point of death—
even to death on a cross.
For this reason God highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee will bow—
in heaven and on earth
and under the earth—
and every tongue will confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:3–11)
Obedience Is the Diffuser of the New Heart
One way we live and spread the aroma of Christ is by obeying the Lord’s commands for us. Obedience to the Word is the diffuser which sends the scent we carry throughout the world. It’s the evidence that we really believe what we say we believe—or not. We can say, “Oh, of course I believe what the Bible says.” But when the rubber meets the road, how seriously do we really take the instructions we’ve been given? How will others know the hope and life that’s found in Christ if we live (or “smell”) just like the world?
The Lord has convicted my heart countless times when I find myself trying to justify wrong attitudes or actions. When we feel our hearts pushing back when we should be obeying, it’s worth pausing and asking ourselves: Whose aroma do I carry? Yes, the flesh will kick and scream. But the joy of knowing we’re spreading the aroma of Christ by our lips and lives is joy unspeakable—now and for eternity.
Charles Spurgeon said,
Here is an alabaster box of very precious ointment, it holds within the costly frankincense of the love of God: but we know nothing of it, it is closed up, a mystery, a secret. The Holy Spirit opens the box, and now the fragrance fills the chamber wherein the ten thousand times ten thousand of the elect are sitting, for now the love is shed abroad; every spiritual taste perceives it, heaven and earth are perfumed with it.1
What a glorious, undeserved honor we’ve been given—to bear the fragrance of Jesus Christ.
1 Charles Haddon Spurgeon, “The Perfuming of the Heart,” The Spurgeon Center, September 6, 1868, https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/the-perfuming-of-the-heart/#flipbook/.
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