Yesterday’s devotional was titled “We Smell” referring to the last part of verse 14 which uses the words, aroma, fragrance, perfume, or savor depending on the English translation.
Today’s sermon is a follow-up to yesterday’s post. I guess one could say we put the cart before the horse, as today we look at the triumphal procession in Christ that Paul notes at the beginning of verse 14.
STUDY
Handfuls on Purpose, by James Smith, 1943
THE TRIUMPHANT LIFE. 2 Corinthians 2:14-17
“Thanks be unto God, who always causes us to triumph in Christ” (v. 14). The life that has always been led on in triumph should indeed be a thankful one. There are so many seeming failures in one’s experience. What are the secrets of a victorious life? In those few verses as above, we note some of them.
I. A Life in Christ. “God causes us to triumph in Christ.” There is no possibility of living the victorious life, in God’s sight, put of Christ. To be in Christ is to be at one with Him, and so entirely yielded to His will that His will will be done in us. As the apostle put it, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). “We know that we dwell in Him, because He has given us of His Spirit” (1 John 4:13).
II. A Life that Reveals Something of the Wisdom of God. “He makes manifest the savor of His knowledge by us” (v. 14). The guiding principle in the Christian life is the truth revealed in His Word (2 Corinthians 4:2). Those led by the Spirit of God will surely be witnesses to something higher and nobler than the wisdom of this world, which is foolishness with God.
III. A Life that has a Sweet Savor of Christ unto God. “For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ” (v. 15). “Christ gave Himself for us an offering to God for a sweet smelling savor” (Ephesians 5:2). Those who have been partakers of that offering are to be partakers also of the same sweet savor unto God. He could say: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” for He knew that all His interests committed to His Son would be safe and successful. Let us so seek to please God.
IV. A Life that Affects both Saved and Unsaved. “A savor of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish” (v. 15). The influence of one Christian’s life can be made a confirmation to another who loves the same Lord. The “savor of Christ,” like the fragrance of the rose, can be easily detected by those who are saved, but to those who are perishing it smells condemnation, so they don’t like it (v. 16).
V. A Life True to the Word of God. “We are not as many which corrupt the Word of God” (v. 17). Those who walk in craftiness are sure to handle the Word of God deceitfully (chapter 4:2). If the heart is not true to God, the life will not be true to His Word. It is easy to corrupt God’s message by mingling it with Christ dishonoring philosophies and the traditions of men. There can be no spiritual victory for those who have gone out of the way (Colossians 2:8).
VI. A Life Lived in the Presence of God. “In the sight of God speak we in Christ” (v. 17). Abiding in Christ and practicing the presence of God in the daily life is the evidence of vanquishing power. This is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith. Faith in Him who is greater than all that can be against us. “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7). Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God. “Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
SERMON
The Triumphal Procession, Alexander Maclaren
BONUS SERMON
The Aroma of Christ Among the Nations, John Piper
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