How Do You Smell to God: Odor or Aroma?
The sense of smell is a great gift from God. With it we can tell if there is a fire, when a fruit is ripe (or rotten), what mom is cooking for dinner, or whether a diaper needs changing. Did you know that God also has a great sense of smell? That how we live our lives can be described as being either an aroma (pleasing to God) or an odor (not pleasing to God)?
The first mention of God's sense of smell appears when He "smelled the pleasing aroma" of Noah's sacrifices (Genesis 8:18-22). God had flooded the world to wipe out every living creature save Noah's family and the pairs of each animal. When the earth dried up, Noah exited from the ark, built an altar to the Lord, and sacrificed some of the clean animals as burnt offerings. The text goes on to tell us that "The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma" of the sacrifices and vowed to never destroy the earth again with a flood. Like Noah, when we praise God for His mercy, we are offering up something that is a pleasing aroma to God.
In Exodus and Leviticus, Moses gives instructions on the various sacrifices ranging from intentional and unintentional sins, corporate and personal sins, mandatory and voluntary offerings, to the ordination and consecration of the priest(s) and Tabernacle. Again, the Bible tells us that the aroma of the sacrifices was pleasing to the Lord (Exodus 29:18, 25, 41; Leviticus 1:9, 13, 17, 2:2, 9). For us who live on this side of the Cross, the equivalent would be the confession of our sins as Christ forgives us and washes us clean. The aroma of repentance is a pleasing aroma to God.
In addition, the New Testament mentions three other activities Christians can do that create a pleasing aroma to God. The first is prayer. In the book of Revelation, the Apostle John records a vision of God's throne in Heaven (Revelation 5). John and the others are weeping because no one was able to open the scroll that was sealed with seven seals. Then one of the elders instructs John to stop weeping and comforts him with the news that the Lion of Judah (a.k.a. Jesus), the Lamb that was slain, is worthy to open the scroll. The text tells us that when Jesus takes the scroll, the twenty-four elders each with a harp bow down before the Lamb and that they were "holding bowls full of incense, which are the prayer of the saints. (v.8)" The saints whose Jesus purchased with his blood to be a kingdom of priests to serve God. When we pray, our prayers rise like incense as a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
Our witness is the second aroma that pleases God. In 2 Corinthians 2, the Apostle Paul uses the imagery of a triumphal procession of a victorious general who enters the city parading his conquered spoils of war. He thanks God "who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. (vv.14-15)." Our Christian witness is a fragrance to Christ even though it is an odor of death to those persecuting us. The latter points to the possibility of becoming a martyr for their faith in Christ which many of the early church experienced for their witness. So when we live as witnesses or actively share the gospel, we are lifting up an aroma pleasing to God.
Finally, the last mention of an aroma is found in Paul's letter to the Ephesians: we are to imitate Christ's sacrificial love as a "fragrant offering and sacrifice to God" (Ephesians 5:2). How we love each other is a pleasing aroma to God. Chances are, the recipients of our sacrificial love will also smell its fragrance, too.
So as we worship, serve, and share the Lord together, remember that these are an aroma pleasing to the Lord.
-Pastor Philip Gee
