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August 12 Daily Devotional

Smelling Nice

Peter G. Feenstra

Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. Ephesians 5:2

Bible Reading

Ephesians 5:1–7

Devotional

Have you ever come across something that was decomposing? It does not smell very pleasant, to say the least. Death never smells nice. The fall into sin brought death on all of humanity. “The wages of sin is death.” (Rom 6:23) In the Old Dispensation, the sacrifices that took place taught the people of God about the need for atonement. The death of goats and bulls and rams reminded the people that salvation, deliverance and life are only possible through the work of a substitute. The sacrifices pointed to the need for atonement through payment.

The flow of blood was not a pretty sight. The constant sacrificing of animals on the temple grounds proclaimed a powerful message: sin does nothing else but create a stink. You can imagine how putrid it would have smelled in the area of the temple where the animals were slaughtered. The smell of animal sacrifices and blood, combined with the hot sun, created an awful smell which attracted flies and scavengers.

At the cross of Jesus the stench of our sins was changed into a sweet-smelling aroma. It was there that our sins were buried with Christ. Wherever the gospel is preached you smell the fragrance of the gospel—the fragrance of life. When people enter a congregation where the gospel is preached they should be able to say, “What’s that smell? I love the smell!” The gospel of Christ’s death has a wonderful fragrance and provides us with the opportunity to tell others of Christ’s atoning work. Gospel-filled lives make us smell nice. If a family heats their home with a wood stove and smoke gets into the house, the smell will be noticed on everything. In this same way the aroma of the cross needs to permeate our entire lives. That is why Paul writes in Ephesians 5:1-2 “And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma.” Yes, you should be able to walk up to fellow believers and tell them they smell nice.

Let the fragrance of the knowledge of God spread everywhere. Today we look forward to the time when the Lord Jesus will return again on the clouds of heaven. The dead will be raised and all those bodies that went into the grave, with the smell of death, will be raised incorruptible. On the new earth we will smell really nice, because the fragrance of Christ will permeate everything completely.

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