“And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour” Eph. 5:2. “For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ” II Cor. 2:16.
Walk in love? How very persuasive is the motivation! (1) Christ hath loved us, (2) He hath given Himself for us to redeem us, (3) The redemption price is two-fold: as a (gift) offering; as a sacrifice for payment due. (4) God, in turn, being satisfied, finds His fulfilled plan of Redemption in the cross-work of Christ, a sweetsmelling savour. “I am crucified” [identified with Christ in His crucifixion] . . .“I live” [ I am identified with Christ in His resurrection], “yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” We are in Him, of Him, by Him, for Him; and (soon to be with Him,) and therefore we are unto God a sweetsmelling savour of Christ! In plainer terms, if our scent was to enter the nostrils of God, He would declare, There is about you the sweet fragrance of Jesus!
How often, dear reader, have you sat waiting for a scrumptious dinner; the aroma from the kitchen filling the air! How pleasing to the nostrils! I used to drive by a large bakery almost every day, and I readied my lungs in anticipation of the smell of fresh bread as it lingered in the air all around that bakery! Paul was in a dingy, odorous prison. He was able to smell neither a meal being prepared in the kitchen nor the sweet smell of bread from the bakery; yet the stench of the prison could not withhold from him a sweet smell. . .
“But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God” Phil. 4:18. A “sweet smell? A [living] sacrifice, acceptable, pleasing to God? Has a familiar ring, doesn’t it? The next verse is abundantly familiar to all: “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” vs. 19.
Paul received at the hand of Epaphroditus “the things sent from you,” “an odour of a sweet smell.” From whence was the sweet smell in Paul’s nostrils? I perceive not only of the “things” sent, but of the ones from whence they came, and even of Epaphroditus who delivered them. Likewise, the “things, the riches in glory” are “from and by Christ Jesus”, being “received at the hand of God.” Is this not a legitimate comparison? Then we must conclude the “riches in glory,” “Christ Jesus” Himself from whence they are, being supplied by “God the Father,” to be a three-fold blessing: God the Supplier, Christ, the Provider, the riches in glory, the Provision. All should be pleasing to the nostrils of the believer as a “sweetsmelling savour!”
Oh, for a whiff of the Bread of heaven! And what shall it be, when our lungs cease not to be filled with the purest of air, the Breath of heaven; the air filled with the fragrance of the Lily of the Valley, the Rose of Sharon! Oh dear friend! If the sweetsmelling savour from Heaven’s kitchen and the aroma from its Bakery is any indication of the feast that is to follow . . .!
“How sweet are thy words unto my taste! Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” Psalm 119:103. “Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones” Pro. 16:24.
Copyright 2007, by Darius Stewart
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