2 Corinthians 2:14-16 Now thanks be to God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ, and makes manifest the aroma of his knowledge by us in every place.… I. THE ABSOLUTE OR REAL CHARACTER OF THE GOSPEL. 1. What anything is, is determined by what it is to God. Things are to us what we are to them. Light is most pleasant to the healthful eye, but nothing is more pernicious when it is diseased; food, in certain conditions of the body, will be as prejudicial as poison, and poison as beneficial as food. And there are who "call evil good and good evil," etc. And, similarly, God is to us what we are to Him. 2. In itself the gospel is God's spell, a message from God possessed of a charm. He that hath ears to hear it will be won by it; but "the wicked, who are like the deaf adder, will not hearken to the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely." In the gospel God appears in all the attractive attributes of His grace, that He may regain the alienated affections of His rebellious children. 3. It was not only declared by, but embodied in, Jesus, who was "set forth" to reveal the Father in His relations to a sinful world. Apart from Christ, man has no true knowledge of God, and is "without hope." In Christ God is personally manifested and personally present. His message in the gospel is embodied in His messenger. Christ not only proclaims, but is the gospel. "His name is as perfume poured forth" — the diffusion of "the sweet savour of the knowledge of God." 4. He is this because He is the manifestation of that which is the very soul of personality — Love. In the wide circumference of things God has gone forth in the division of His powers, but in Christ His deep central unity appears — His love. He who possesses the love of another possesses that other. "God is Love," and the gospel is its complete display. 5. The gospel also reveals the depth of love in its wisdom. There is nothing so wise as love. God is "the only wise God," because He is Love. The restoration of alienated man is the problem in the solution of which the love of God displays the marvellous resources of its wisdom. In the gospel the practical intelligence of the Divine love makes such a display of the Divine character that it appeals to all the influential motives operative on man's nature, so that, if he is not won by it, he is left "without excuse," and God is left to lament, "What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it?" etc. "O Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered," etc. 6. The gospel also taxes to the utmost the resources of the Divine love and wisdom combined. Love takes counsel of wisdom how to make the most effective appeal to the sinner's heart, and wisdom calls upon love for that winning display of the Divine goodness which looks upon the sinner with mercy whilst it exercises vengeance on his sin. It was with tears Christ pronounced the doom of Jerusalem. Mercy is that look of wisdom and love which pities where righteousness blames. 7. But the gospel is also the display of mercy in its deepest agony of effort! It is the Divine tragedy in which "the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep," in which sin is judged, condemned, and slain, and the sinner justified, liberated, and restored. (1) No wonder Paul felt the proclamation of its glad tidings to be the celebration of a triumph of God. The angels sang, "Glory to God in the highest," as the preface to their song of "peace on earth, goodwill toward men."(2) And no wonder that preachers of this gospel "were unto God a sweet savour of Christ." What can be so pleasant to love as that of being made known? What so fragrant to God as the diffusion of the sweet mystery of the Cross, "to the intent that now unto principalities and powers," etc. And just as the scattered flowers, fragrant shrubs, and sweet incense breathed forth a perfume of sweet savour before the advancing ranks in the triumphal procession, irrespective of its effects on victor and vanquished, so, irrespective of its consequences with respect to those who hear the gospel, the ministry of its glad tidings is unto God the diffusion of a sweet savour. II. ITS CRITICAL INFLUENCE AS SEEN IN ITS OPPOSITE EFFECTS ON THOSE TO WHOM IT IS PREACHED. The gospel embodies the wisdom and power of the Divine love in their endeavour to meet the requirements of man's sin, and is in itself perfectly adapted as the chosen body of truth to radiate the influence of the Holy Spirit, to awaken the mind, arouse the conscience, subdue the heart, and reform the whole nature. In it God appeals to us by motives which He knows to be influential, which exercise a constraining power on the thoughts, affections, and will, and in which "He is mighty to save." 2. The effect, therefore, on those who listen to it must be great. We cannot come under the ministry of the gospel and remain-the same as we were before we heard it. It either subdues or hardens, alienates or reconciles, kills or cures. What it may be to us is dependent on the disposition we exercise towards it. We bring to it what determines its effect. The gospel changes not; it is always, in itself considered, "the power of God unto salvation"; but its effects on us vary with our varying dispositions. To those who seek peace God is a "God of peace," but to those who strive with Him "He is a man of war." 3. "To the one we are the savour of life unto life." The ministry of the grace of God in Christ is the breathing forth of a spiritual essence fragrant with life. It has the power of life; of the sweetness, joy, beauty of life. 4. To the other the "savour of death unto death." Paul felt acutely that he could not be the minister of the word of life to men without increasing their responsibility. For in proportion to its quickening power of life in those who receive it does it work death in those who refuse to accept it. Just as the balmy, life-giving breezes of spring bring life to the constitutionally sound, but death to those radically diseased, so is it with the gospel. To some it is life to hear it, to others "death unto death" — the death of indifference to the death of obduracy; the death of ignorance and darkness to that of light and knowledge having become darkness; the death of hopelessness to that of despair. The height of privilege bestowed upon man in the offer of the gospel is antithetic to the depth of ignominy which its rejection involves. (W. Pulsford, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. |
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