Summary
The Sense of Smell in Scripture
Smell is a peculiar gift among the senses. It is visceral—reaching us in a way we cannot fully explain—and it is irrational, in that we cannot argue someone out of a scent. It is also tied tightly to memory and emotion: freshly baked bread, clean laundry, the earth after a hard rain, a grandmother's house at the holidays. With a single breath we are returned to a place, a person, a moment.
Scripture treats smell as theologically significant. Throughout Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, the burnt offerings, grain offerings, oil, and frankincense are described again and again as "a pleasing aroma to the Lord." Leviticus 6:12-13 commands that the fire on the altar never go out: every morning the priest adds wood and lays out the offerings, and the smoke ascends continually. The smell of sacrifice was meant to please God.
The Stench of Sin
Yet not every odor is pleasing. When Adam and Eve took the forbidden fruit, the bite that looked so good carried with it a stench that has clung to creation ever since: the stench of sin and death. We are, by nature, born stinky—born into the reek of envy, pride, ego, and selfishness. No amount of bathing, no quantity of good works, can scrub it off. As Isaiah confesses, "we have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment" Isaiah 64:6.
This is why Israel's sacrifices, once they degenerated into mere ceremony, ceased to please God. David recognized this in Psalm 51:16-17: "For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it… The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." What rises pleasingly to God is not ritual smoke but a repentant heart that knows it brings nothing of its own.
The One Acceptable Sacrifice
The only offering that is truly fragrant before God is Christ Himself. Hebrews 9:11-14 declares that Christ entered the holy place once for all, not with the blood of goats and calves but with His own blood, securing eternal redemption. Laid upon the altar of the cross, the spotless Lamb took the stench of our sin upon Himself and replaced it with the eternal aroma of His own perfect offering. In His death He conquered death; in conquering death He has eternal victory over sin.
The Aroma of Christ in Us
This is where Paul's striking image in 2 Corinthians 2:14-17 takes hold: "Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere." A Roman triumph paraded a victorious general through the city with the spoils and captives of his conquest behind him. We are the captives of Christ—conquered by the Lamb, claimed in the waters of baptism, taken up into His victory rather than crushed by it. He cannot be cleaned by us, but we have been washed clean by Him, and He now leads us forth as the fragrance of His knowledge in the world.
Paul continues: "We are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing—to the one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life." The scent itself does not change; people do. To those closed against the Word, the aroma of Christ is repugnant; to those whose ears and hearts the Spirit has opened, the same fragrance is life leading to further life.
Many Notes, One Fragrance
There are thousands of distinct notes that perfumers can blend, and likewise the Lord has called billions of people, with a myriad of gifts, talents, and callings, to be His Body. Each Christian is a unique note in the one fragrance of Christ. The expressions differ; the scent is the same. And we are not peddlers, hawking the gospel for our own gain like clerks at a department-store counter. What we received freely, by Christ's purchase, we carry freely—the scent of His mercy, His grace, His compassion—wherever He sends us, as those examined in "Fragrant" 11-10-24 reminds the faithful.
By His grace He took our stench. By His grace He washed us in baptism. By His grace He has filled us with His Holy Spirit and led us out in His triumphal procession to be, in every ordinary day, a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
Video citations
- "Fragrant" 11-10-24 — Okay, everyone close your eyes. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath in through your nose. You smell the church. Keep your eyes closed for a moment. And imagine the smell of freshly baked bread.…