The Savor of His Knowledge
II Cor.2:14 - Now thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ, and makes manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place.
What a verse. What a statement. What a challenge. The great Apostle starts with a praise to our God from whom all blessings flow. He is well aware that every good and perfect gift comes from God and as he states in chapter four, “Our sufficiency is of God”. Oh there is none like our God, none as gracious, none as powerful, and none as glorious as our Heavenly Father and the Risen Son. And all of our knowledge comes from God the Spirit and His illumination of our darkened minds and hearts. Let us never take a particle of praise for that which is all of God and none of us and even our sacrifice and labor to follow Him is all of Him.
And upon that unshakable foundation we move to the second phrase, one that includes God graciousness and power in concert. We all have a free will which in itself is a gift from God, but do not suppose that the strength of our wills is the power for spiritual victory. No, all our victory in the Spirit is caused by God and comes directly from Him through the Spirit. Well, you ask, doesn’t our will and our surrender play any part? Surely and of course, the New Testament is replete with commands to obey and the rewards that accompany that obedience, but when we contemplate the extent of our victory we must quickly see that God’s gift of victory in Christ is greatly disproportionate to our acts of obedience. What do I mean?
I am saying that although God responds to our obedience, the rewards and gifts of grace far surpass the acts of obedience we have offered unto Him. Like the laborer that came at 5:00 PM and only worked for one hour but received the same pay as those who worked the entire day, so is God’s reward for us so overstated and beyond what can be explained by our works of righteousness in Christ. His reward, His victory, graciously lavished upon us should never magnify us and our works but only the lift high the Victor Himself in all His magnificence. It is He who has caused us to triumph and not we ourselves, and it is His victory and His alone and He has graciously shared it with “whosever will” according to His divine will. Yes, to God be the glory great things He has done!
Move on to the words “makes manifest”. We as believers must be the manifestation of Christ on the earth. Paul says we are “epistles, read of all men” and the world no longer sees Christ except through the prism of His followers. God makes Christ manifest through us and that revelation becomes effective in direct proportion to our invisibility. We must decrease and He must increase. This process is both painful and yet wonderfully fulfilling. Letting God’s Word cut away our flesh and through faith and prayer we invite the Spirit to gain absolute control of our lives both inside and outwardly. This metamorphosis reaches its zenith when we begin to think like Jesus. Oh what a challenge is this because we have become adept at thinking for ourselves and altering those thoughts before we act upon them which is good but not best.
The Scriptures tell us we can have the mind of Christ and allow Him to think through us. What a mystery and what a glory! Would the world see something glorious in the body of Christ if we actually thought like Jesus and did not have to alter our thoughts but could immediately act on our thoughts because they were His not ours? What if we loved like Him without any effort? What if our devotional life was so powerful and deep that our eyes became portals through which Christ Himself looked and not us? What if our hearts were so pure that any thought that wasn’t from Christ was immediately recognized and cast down, repented of, and destroyed in the forgiveness of Christ’s blood?
Look at what the Spirit through Paul goes on to say. He says that our triumph does not result in any personal fame or fortune or even physical benefit, but God’s purpose is to let the fragrance of His knowledge be known in every place we go. Oh my, how often do we go to a place and the savor of His knowledge is not flowing through us? God’s desire is that He can make His presence known through His followers in every place. And the presence of Christ is a fragrance that draws sinners and saints alike. Like the sirens in Greek mythology, the fragrance of Christ is unmistakable and can only be resisted by a sinner’s hardened heart tied to the mast of his own will.
Think about all the many and wonderful attributes of the Lord Jesus as revealed to us in the Scriptures. I do not mean just His acts of mercy and grace, I refer just to His presence and His words. Jesus rebuked those who followed Him for loaves and fishes, and He observed that Martha’s work was subservient to Mary’s devotion. Think now about the proportion of time we spend doing something for Jesus in contrast to the time we spend alone with Him, listening, meditating, and letting His presence change us from glory to glory. Could it be that is why the world does not sense His presence through us as they should? Could that be the reason we think and react like we do, and could that be why we are so enamored by the things of this world and our own self-aggrandizement? Could that also be the reason that we give so little thought to the lost souls throughout the world and the missionaries that labor in those fields? Could that be the reason?
What do you surmise Mary felt when she was visited by the Archangel Gabriel? Do you believe his presence was astounding and brought a part of heaven into her room? The sight of this angel must have been indescribable and his voice must have been supernatural. Do you also believe there must have been some fragrance, some angelic savor that reinforced the fact that Gabriel had come from the presence of God Himself? Now if Gabriel came with that heavenly ambiance what do you suppose comes with the presence of Christ Himself? Oh, you say, but Gabriel really was there. Please, please my brothers and sisters do not negate that which God has many time promised those who seek His face. Do not be so faithless as to demand sight at the expense of the glory of faith.
We can and should be daily in God’s presence, and not just the general “God is everywhere” principle of His presence. We should separate ourselves and go beyond the veil and by faith enter into His presence. How can you know you are truly in God’s presence? Well first you will be convicted of your own sins. To sense God’s presence is to sense His holiness and if a sinner is unsaved he immediately desires salvation, and when it is a believer he immediately desires forgiveness through God’s blood. To walk in forgiveness is to walk in His Spirit and we must be careful to be sensitive to our sins. Careless lives can never bring God’s knowledge to the world, it only displays a mirror of themselves. They can fellowship with a carnal believer but they cannot sense God’s presence which is what they desperately need.
In God’s presence we can sense God’s love and grace through His forgiveness. Is it not amazing that God desires us to reflect Him and bring the glory of His presence to the world. And to find that God will work with us to change us and make us “fit for the Master’s use” is breathtaking. What is man that He is mindful of us, and why does God persevere with those of us who have so often been unfaithful? That is just another unplumbed cavern of God’s love and eternal faithfulness to us and such knowledge empowers us to press toward the high mark of His calling. Being an ambassador and a witness for Jesus Christ starts with the preaching of the gospel, but manifesting His knowledge is much deeper and more powerfully spiritual than just handing out a tract.
Missionaries around the world have lived among those to whom they wish to spread the gospel, but their ministry goes far beyond just words. They are being watched and read by the sinners Christ loves, and those lost sinners need a visual revelation of Jesus that will fortify and substantiate the Christ that is being preached. It is without argument that a sinner must hear and believe the gospel to be saved, but he must also see Christ in us so the Spirit may open his heart as well. That calling is not just to overseas missionaries, that is the calling of every believer. Can the lost people at work, the neighbors, or any people that God has allowed you to have contact with sense the presence of Christ in your life?
Now this living revelation of the Lord Jesus includes the humanitarian acts of grace that He Himself produced, but it also encompasses much more. The love of God empowers a life to behave in a way so contrary to the norm that people take notice. Speech that is so seasoned with salt and grace that those with whom we converse sense something different. And an overall ambiance that follows our lives that some will ask the reason for the hope that seems so evident within us. When was the last time someone asked you why you have such hope? We sometimes feel if we say a word for Jesus or pass out a tract or support a missionary that we have fulfilled our religious obligation when in fact our spiritual ministry is much more intimate and carries with it a much greater responsibility to exhibit the light of the world to the darkness of the world in which we live.
In essence, we are to let Jesus live through us. Too often the world has smelled the fragrance of the carnal church and its agendas and not the Risen Son of God. We must humble ourselves, separate ourselves, and seek His life changing presence again. When a believer gives his testimony it usually is about how he was saved and how God changed his life when he was converted, but when was the last time God significantly and demonstratively changed your life? When was the last time God so dramatically changed your life that you could not help but share the experience with others? Are you and I content with where we are and how God uses us in this world, or do we thirst for more of Him? I exhort all of us to inhale the aroma of our own lives and see if we detect the fragrance of Jesus or ourselves.
If we detect ourselves let us repent and go to His presence and let His savor permeate our lives not for us, but for His glory alone.
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