“For we are unto God a sweet fragrance of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish” (II Corinthians 2:15).

Fragrance: (Def): (Gr.): Euodia from Eu Ozo: Good scent, sweet savor, smell

There are many perfumes, colognes, ode de toilettes, people wear as a pleasant scent in the presence of others that we detect and to which we respond in one way or another. Scents are powerful and either attract or repel those who are in the path of its dispensing.

The Apostle uses the metaphor of fragrance to describe our manifested presence to others with whom we may interact. He says, “We are unto God a sweet fragrance of Christ”. Believers in Christ bear Christ in their being. In another context, the Apostle says concerning this bearing of Christ:

“Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body” (II Corinthians 4:10).

As we bear “the dying of the Lord Jesus,” we also manifest the life of Jesus and this manifestation gives forth a fragrance to others. Some, who are of like spirit, delight in it as a fragrance of life, others who are lost are repelled by it as a fragrance of death, as the Apostle expressed it:

“To the one we are the fragrance of death unto death; and to the other, the fragrance of life unto life, and who is sufficient for these things” (II Corinthians 2:16).

Unto God, a Sweet Fragrance. It is God, Himself, who takes delight in the Fragrance. From of old it has been so:

“And you shall burn the whole ram upon the altar; it is a burnt offering unto the Lord, it is a sweet fragrance, an offering made by fire unto the Lord” (Exodus 29:18, cf. Leviticus 2:2,9; 3:5,16; 4:31).

The sweet fragrance of the sacrifices was a type and shadow of the true fragrance of Christ, who was offered up on the Cross of Calvary as a sacrificial Lamb and was made an atonement for the sin of the whole world.

The fragrance of Christ is a holy fragrance that is pleasing to the Father who receives it as a testimony of purification, cleansing, redemption, and reconciliation, and by which His just, righteous and holy nature is satisfied that the corruption of sin has been removed and holiness is preserved in His Presence. There is a sweet fragrance in His nostrils, the fragrance of His Son who releases the divine fragrance that the Father loves, the fragrance of “Life unto Life“, and only the Son is sufficient or qualified for these things. The propitiation, the sacrifice that satisfies, the holy offering of the Son sends forth the holy fragrance of “the offering made by fire unto the Lord” (cf. Leviticus 8:21).

As we lay down our lives “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God which is our reasonable service of worship” (cf. Romans 12:1), we become the “fragrance of Christ” that is to the living (the saved) a fragrance of life, and to the dead (the lost), a fragrance of death. To the one a sweet fragrance, as flowers in the garden of life; to the other a foul odor, a stench of death, even as they perish in the way.

Beloved, live unto God as the fragrance of Christ, a holy fragrance well pleasing to the Father until you are received in holy habitation in the Spirit of Christ unto eternal glory in Him.

“Awake, O North Wind, and come thou South: blow upon my Garden that the Spices thereof may flow out. Let my Beloved come into His Garden and eat His pleasant fruits” (Song of Songs 4:16).

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