“But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume. Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume. And who is adequate for such a task as this?”
2 Corinthians 2:14-16 NLT
God has made his story of redemption an inescapable truth. It is the proverbial train wreck that one cannot look away from. What was anticipated as being a triumphant victory over the constant succession of warring armies upon Israel was not triumphant at all. Instead, the would be messiah of as easily put to death and rejected by his own people. Revolution never came. That is yo say, revolt was never to come. Instead, reformation occurred. The feared symbol of death, the Roman Cross, became a symbol of life, and Rome, the once mighty nation, fell to the annals of history. Jesus and his people have always been a peculiar display. We are best when we are odd. When we try to fit in, we merely seem out of place. This is not who we are meant to be. The Gospel is an odd story. It twists and turns and juxtaposes elements that shouldn’t fit, and yet harmonize so well. Yet, so many Christians avoid preaching Christ crucified. So many try to remove it from his historicity. So many seek to keep him an ethereal and personal belief, but strip him of his power in their physical, everyday living. This should not be so. We are to be a fragrance to those who want to know God, and a stench to those who reject him. Let us wear this peculiarity with honor.
JOSH McGARY. COM 