Tuesday, March 29, 2011
2 Corinthians 2:15 For we are to God the aroma of Christ ...
THE RIGHT SCENT
Among those who care for sheep, it's common knowledge that you can't bond an orphaned lamb with just any ewe. An ewe recognizes her lamb by its scent. If it doesn't have the right scent, she'll reject it. But wise shepherds know how to remedy the problem. Taking the skin of a dead lamb, they fit its coat around an orphan like a sweater. Then they present the orphan to the mother of the dead lamb, whose skin the orphan is now wearing. Because it smells like her own lamb, she will accept and nurse it.
Born in sin, we humans give off a spiritual stench which God can't stand. We reek with sin. God, therefore, has every reason and right to reject us, to banish us from His presence forever.
Enter Jesus, the Lamb of God! Jesus is the sinless Lamb whose heart and life are a sweet savor to God. Nevertheless, the Lamb is led to the slaughter. On the cross He takes upon Himself all sin. The world's sin is so tightly wrapped around Him that it actually becomes His sin (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21). What happens then? God smells the rot and is repulsed. He turns away from the foul stench and gives Jesus what sin merits: wrath and punishment. As a result, all sin is atoned for.
But that's not all. God then takes the perfect life of Jesus and dresses us in it. He clothes us in the unspotted wool of His own dear Lamb. So now we have a different scent, the right scent, the scent of Christ. Now God accepts us as His very own. By faith in His Son He adopts us into His flock. No longer orphans with no future, we are the people of God's pasture with a guaranteed place at God's side, now and forever!
