What does it mean that Christians are the aroma of Christ (2 Corinthians 2:15)?

There is no question that verse 14 should run, "Now thanks be unto God, who always leads us in triumph" (not "causeth us to triumph") "in Christ," etc. From the context it is to be gathered that the apostle had been somewhat interrupted in his labours by the state of things at Corinth. "Out of much affliction and anguish of heart" he had written to them, "with many tears," concerning the sin in their midst, and had sent the letter by the hand of Titus. In the meanwhile, he had gone to Troas to preach the gospel, and had hoped to meet Titus there; but not finding him, Paul, although a door was opened to him of the Lord, had no rest in his spirit, could not settle down to his work, because of his anxiety for tidings from the Corinthian assembly. He accordingly left Troas and went to Macedonia, where he was comforted by the coming of Titus, and by the tidings which he brought. (2 Cor. 7:6-7.) But the "thought of having left Troas affected him, for, in fact, it is a serious thing, and painful to the heart, to miss an opportunity of preaching Christ, and the more so when people are disposed to receive Him, or, at least, to hear of Him." It is in this state of mind that Paul finds his consolation in the fact that, whatever his own failures in service, he could yet thank God, who always led him and his companions in triumph in Christ, and made manifest the savour of His knowledge in every place. God had His way, and accomplished His purposes in the apostle's preaching wherever he went; Christ was everywhere proclaimed, and the savour of His knowledge thus went forth continually. In what follows, Paul alludes to the ancient triumphal processions after successful campaigns. The conqueror's chariot was followed by the captives taken in the war, and the aromatic perfumes burnt in honour of the successful general were a savour of life unto life to those who might be spared, and of death unto death to those who might be doomed to execution. The application is easy, "For we" (as led of God in triumph), says the apostle, "are unto God a sweet savour of Christ," that is, in preaching Christ, "in them that are saved and in them that perish." The proclamation of the gospel delights the heart of God; and this sweet odour, which goes up so acceptably to Him, becomes to those who receive the gospel and are saved, "the savour of life unto life; but to those that refuse it, those that perish, "the savour of death unto death." Fragrant, therefore, as the setting forth of Christ in the gospel is to the heart of God, it is yet a solemn thing when considered in the light of its tremendous issues for those to whom it is preached. It is this which leads the apostle to exclaim, "And who is sufficient for these things?" The answer to this question is found in the next chapter. (v. 5.)

There is no question that verse 14 should run, "Now thanks be unto God, who always leads us in triumph" (not "causeth us to triumph") "in Christ," etc. From the context it is to be gathered that the apostle had been somewhat interrupted in his labours by the state of things at Corinth. "Out of much affliction and anguish of heart" he had written to them, "with many tears," concerning the sin in their midst, and had sent the letter by the hand of Titus. In the meanwhile, he had gone to Troas to preach the gospel, and had hoped to meet Titus there; but not finding him, Paul, although a door was opened to him of the Lord, had no rest in his spirit, could not settle down to his work, because of his anxiety for tidings from the Corinthian assembly. He accordingly left Troas and went to Macedonia, where he was comforted by the coming of Titus, and by the tidings which he brought. (2 Cor. 7:6-7.) But the "thought of having left Troas affected him, for, in fact, it is a serious thing, and painful to the heart, to miss an opportunity of preaching Christ, and the more so when people are disposed to receive Him, or, at least, to hear of Him." It is in this state of mind that Paul finds his consolation in the fact that, whatever his own failures in service, he could yet thank God, who always led him and his companions in triumph in Christ, and made manifest the savour of His knowledge in every place. God had His way, and accomplished His purposes in the apostle's preaching wherever he went; Christ was everywhere proclaimed, and the savour of His knowledge thus went forth continually. In what follows, Paul alludes to the ancient triumphal processions after successful campaigns. The conqueror's chariot was followed by the captives taken in the war, and the aromatic perfumes burnt in honour of the successful general were a savour of life unto life to those who might be spared, and of death unto death to those who might be doomed to execution. The application is easy, "For we" (as led of God in triumph), says the apostle, "are unto God a sweet savour of Christ," that is, in preaching Christ, "in them that are saved and in them that perish." The proclamation of the gospel delights the heart of God; and this sweet odour, which goes up so acceptably to Him, becomes to those who receive the gospel and are saved, "the savour of life unto life; but to those that refuse it, those that perish, "the savour of death unto death." Fragrant, therefore, as the setting forth of Christ in the gospel is to the heart of God, it is yet a solemn thing when considered in the light of its tremendous issues for those to whom it is preached. It is this which leads the apostle to exclaim, "And who is sufficient for these things?" The answer to this question is found in the next chapter. (v. 5.)

When the Apostle came to Troas to preach the Gospel of Christ, there was a door opened unto him by the Lord. His great business was to preach the Gospel, and the Lord had manifested His approval by opening a door. Yet Paul was restless. He had expected to meet Titus to receive the anxiously awaited news from Corinth . So he did not enter the door which the Lord opened to preach the Gospel, but he hastened to Macedonia . His own anxiety and restless haste were weaknesses. The door opened for service should have made him tarry at Troas to preach that Gospel, which he loved so well. Then, in due time, the Lord would have led Titus to him. From all this the Corinthians could learn his great love for them and his deep anxiety and concern. And yet his conscience must have been troubled in having lost so great an opportunity to preach the Gospel. Surely he was in a very trying position as a servant of Christ. On the one hand he valued the Gospel and loved to preach it, and on the other hand was his burdened heart for the Saints of God. And therefore he comforts and encourages himself by an outburst of thanksgiving. He knows that God is in it all; not he himself leads, but God always leadeth him in triumph in Christ, ("causes us to triumph" is a faulty translation), "and maketh manifest the odor of His knowledge through us in every place." It is an allusion to a Roman triumphal procession after the victory. Captives were led in these processions, but the victors were the prominent figures. So Paul declares, "God always leadeth us in triumph in Christ." He gives us the victory. All his anxiety for the Corinthians ended in triumph. This was always so. In connection with a Roman triumph incense was burned upon every altar. These aromatics pervaded the whole procession. Through the apostle the sweet smell of His knowledge was spread about. But he also applies this to the Gospel. The two classes are mentioned by him, those who are being saved and those who are perishing. Let us also notice the beautiful thought that the preaching of the Gospel is a sweet incense of Christ unto God. Independent of the results of the preaching of the Gospel, whenever that precious name is preached, which is as ointment poured forth (Song of Solomon 1:3), it delights the heart of God and is a sweet savor unto Him. But as to men, to some it is a savor (or odor) of death unto death and to others a savor of life unto life. (In the Roman triumphal procession were captives to whom the burning incense was a token of death; to others it was a token of life.)

He goes back now to speak of his own personal exercises in relation to them. He had come to Troas for the gospel of Christ, and a door had been there opened to him by the Lord; yet his anxiety with regard to Corinth would not permit him to remain there. He did not find Titus as he expected, who had been sent to them, and his anxiety was such that he left even this open door and departed into Macedonia to find news of them. He does not pronounce upon this whether, after all, it had been the Lord's mind that he should depart; but there could be no question how, with such an one as the apostle, it manifested his anxiety on their behalf; but God had come in. Everywhere he found it so. God was always leading in triumph in Christ. He does not say, "maketh us to triumph," exactly. The triumph was that of God Himself, God who had unfailing interest in all that belonged to Christ, and who manifested it thus in those who were identified with Him upon earth. Through them He was making Manifest the savor of His knowledge in every place; and this, too, where the gospel might seem not to be a success, as where it was manifestly such: in those that were being saved and in those that were perishing. Those who preached it were still a sweet savor of Christ to God; and He delighted in the publication of His power and grace in Him; Christ always a sweet savor to Him, even though it might be in result to those who rejected Christ only a savor of death, the anticipation of worse death, — on the other hand, a savor of life unto life to those who accepted it. Who then was sufficient for such things as these? Their sufficiency had manifestly to be of God Himself, who was the great preacher of Christ in the power of His Spirit, who had come to glorify Him at all times. Yet the human instrumentality was not set aside by this, but confirmed rather; and it required, on the part of those whom God was thus using, that earnest sincerity which was of God; who did not make, therefore, a trade of the word of God, converting it into a means of following out their own self-interest, but who, in the presence of God, where Christ was, spoke in His Name.

What a wonderful ministry was given to Paul — a ministry that brought from heaven the knowledge of God in the Person of Christ. In ministering the Gospel, Paul and his fellow-labourers made manifest the heavenly savour of the knowledge of God wherever they went; and all who came under the influence of the word learned what Christ was to God. Whatever men might think of Christ, He was a sweet odour to God. To those who received Paul's testimony, it was like a life-giving odour from the realm of life; but to those who rejected it, it was as a deadly odour from the region of death. Bearing about such a message, the acceptance or rejection of which determined the eternal destiny of men, is it to be wondered at that Paul said, "Who is sufficient for these things?"

Verse 15. "For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ in them that are saved, and in them that perish." What apostolic preaching is to men. has been stated in the foregoing verse; we are now told what God's messengers are to Himself, when contemplated in the resulting effects of their ministry, The words are bold, but true. Knowing nothing among men but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, Paul felt that what he preached on earth was both attested by angels and approved of God. For what he set forth in his testimony was the Son of God, the fulness of all grace and truth (ante, 2 Cor. 1:19, sq.). Let men listen or forbear, the proclamation of that Name is a continual incense before God; and in His hand shall the pleasure of Jehovah prosper, whether in judgment or in grace (Isa. 53:20). If His pardoned people are accepted in the Beloved who presents them, the enemies also of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs (Ps. 37:10). In the saved and in the lost the will of God must be performed, and the doer of His will, in grace or judgment, is the Son; a savour of Christ goes up to God from that fire which is never quenched. The light which makes glad the heavenly Jerusalem, is the flame also to consume the adversaries in the day of wrath.

The language the Apostle uses seems to be based upon the custom of according a triumph to victorious generals, when sweet odours were burned, and some of the captives, who helped to augment the triumph, were appointed to die, and some to live. The triumph was Christ's; but Paul had a share in it as spreading abroad the sweet odour of Christ wherever he went — an odour so infinitely fragrant to God. This was so whether he were in Troas or whether in Macedonia.

He preached Christ as the One who died and rose again, whether men believed and were saved, or whether they believed not and perished. If they believed not and were perishing, then the tidings of the death of Christ simply meant death for them. If He died for sins, and they refused Him, they certainly must die in their sins. If some believed, then tidings of His life in resurrection brought the odour of life for them. Because He lived they should live also.

Reference is made, in a solemn way, to this savor of Christ's name in 2 Corinthians 2:14-17. In the boldness and liberty of faith the apostle speaks of his journeyings from one place to another with the glad tidings of Christ, as the progress of a triumphant soldier who himself through grace was a captive to Christ, and is now led along in the triumph of that victorious Leader. He is used to spread forth the glory of that triumph by making manifest the sweet savor of Christ in every place, both toward them that are saved and in them that perish.

It is said that sweet spices were burned at the triumphs of the Roman generals. As they made their entry into the city with a multitude of captives following, the burning of the sweet odors were a savor of life to those who participated in that triumph, but to the captives who were to be turned over to the lions, these odors were a savor of death. The odors were thus a savor and a foretaste either of life or of death. So with the excellence of Christ: to those who, through grace bow to Him, who receive forgiveness and life, those sweet odors of His praise are the foretaste of life in eternal fulness and joy; but to those who in pride reject His grace, these praises tell of judgment in eternal separation from the light and love and joy of heaven.

There is no over-colouring of the figure, no representation of himself as humbled and conquered, still less any reference to their fighting against God or His servant. But he turns his joy over their being brought to repentance, and a recognition of his apostolic authority, as well as of his loving services, into a thanksgiving to God, who, instead of letting him feel his abandonment of evangelistic work, always loads us in triumph in the Christ, and makes manifest the odour of His knowledge through us in every place. The allusion is to a Roman triumph, where aromatics were burnt profusely; and on this, too, he seizes to illustrate the going forth everywhere around of his testimony to Christ in the gospel. But the sweet perfumes in a triumphal procession were accompanied by life to some of the captives, and by death to others; and this is as naturally as powerfully turned to point the twofold issues of the gospel.

The unbelieving Jew or Gentile saw no more in Jesus crucified than a dead man; how could the message founded on Him be of power to such? They might not deny the gracious words of it, any more than of Christ in the synagogue of Nazareth, where He announced His mission in the wondrous citation from Isaiah 61; yet they saw not, heard not, God in either. But as God delighted in His Son, a Saviour, so He pronounced beautiful the feet of those that announced glad tidings of peace, of those that announce glad tidings of good things; and so, too, He smells a savour of rest sweeter than that of Noah's offering, or any other. "Because," says the apostle, "we are a sweet odour of Christ to God in those to be saved, and in those that perish;" and this he explains carefully: "to the one an odour from death unto death," which we have seen; "but to the other an odour from life unto life." Such is the message where it is mixed with faith; for faith sees and hears Him as the Son of God, yet Son of man, who died for man, for sins, but rose in the power of an endless life, that we might live also, and live of His life, where sin can never enter, nor death have dominion more.

“We are unto God a sweet savour of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish,” said the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 2:14 nor could a higher expression of true Christianity be given by man. That wonderful savour cast its fragrance on all hands; and saint and sinner alike felt, however little they may have appreciated, its heavenly influence. But it rose up to God in its perfect redolence, and spoke to Him of the charm of that life that was marked continually by those “things that pleased the Father.”