May 6, 2025 - 2 Corinthians 2:15-17 -"The Sweet Savor of Christ"

2 Corinthians 2:15-17

"For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: to the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ."

Here is a sobering mystery in the Gospel of Christ: the same message that brings life to some brings death to others. Paul, directed by the Spirit, declares that the apostles of Christ are the aroma of Christ in the world—a fragrance that carries a twofold effect. To those who perish, it is the stench of death; to those who are saved, by God's electing and redeeming grace in Christ, it is the sweet scent of life.

This is not a result of man's choosing, but God's determining. The will or works of man do not draw the dividing line, but by the eternal counsel of God’s sovereign grace. Those who are “the savour of life unto life” are those who have been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), called by His Spirit, and made willing in the day of His power (Psalm 110:3). The same Christ, preached with the same words and the same clarity and persuasion, brings forth two opposite reactions. Some are hardened. Some are humbled. One walks away scoffing; another bows in worship.

This Gospel is not a mere offer. It is God's declaration concerning His Son and His work accomplished for the satisfaction of His law and justice on behalf of those that the Father chose from before the foundation of the world. It does not beg the sinner to let Christ in. Rather, it proclaims what Christ has done for His elect and declares His finished work, His complete satisfaction, and His infallible power to save. And where the Spirit applies that word to the heart, life springs forth. But where the Spirit does not move, the Gospel becomes the savor of death unto death. Not because there is death in the message, but because the dead heart resists the only source of life. "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned," (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Here is the weight of Paul’s question: “And who is sufficient for these things?” Who is sufficient to preach such a Gospel? Who can carry such a fragrance, knowing that it will both attract and repel? No man in himself. But Christ is sufficient. Christ sends His ambassadors. Christ speaks through them. Christ draws His sheep. And Christ passes by the rest in righteous judgment (John 10:3-16).

This humbles the preacher and silences the proud. It is not by eloquence, emotional persuasion, or man-centered strategies that sinners are drawn to Christ. It is through the foolishness of preaching—preaching Christ and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 1:23). To those who are the called, Christ is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24). But to others, He is a Rock of offense and a stumbling Stone (Romans 9:33).

We are never to alter the message to try to win the world. Christ did not come to save every sinner in the world, but only those that the Father gave Him from eternity (John 17:9). The Gospel will do what God has purposed it to do. His Word will not return unto Him void. It will accomplish what He pleases and prosper in the thing whereunto He sends it (Isaiah 55:11). And in all of it, Christ will be glorified—in the salvation of His people, and in the just condemnation of those who continue to reject Him, having been left to their depraved will (John 6:44,66).

Who is sufficient for these things? Not us as human instruments, no matter how gifted to preach. Our sufficiency is of God (2 Corinthians 3:5). Christ alone must be preached in clarity and truth. In so doing, the sweet savor of His name is spread abroad, knowing it is the fragrance of life to His sheep. In Him we rest and find our sufficiency! He knows those that are His and of all that the Father has given Him, He will lose nothing (John 6:39).