And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. Ephesians 5:2
Can you imagine what it would have been like to have stepped into the tabernacle in the wilderness and to have witnessed the offerings being made on the altar there? In reality, there was nothing glamorous about it. In fact, it was a bloody and violent scene as the animals were taken and slaughtered according to prescribed ritual. And as the animals were laid upon the blazing altar, the air would be filled with the powerful stench of burning flesh. In reality, we would have found it rather shocking and at first disgusting. But to the priests who functioned there the atmosphere was normal, and they took no offense at the gory sights and the powerful smells. And, according to the book of Leviticus, the smell from that tabernacle scene was sweet to God. Why did God declare that such offerings had a sweet smelling savour? For one thing, He would see that an acceptable offering was being made that would cover the sins of the people. But most importantly, He would see a representative of the offering of His own Son at Calvary. And nothing could ever be sweeter to God than that.
One of the wonderful senses that God has given us is that of smell. Our noses provide us with the ability to detect scents of all kinds. And many of those scents are wonderful, from the aroma of a summer breeze blowing across a field of newly mowed hay, to the fragrance of a blooming rosebush, to the mouth-watering savour flowing from a barbecue filled with delicious meats, we love to enjoy the scents that are around us. And it is certain that the God of creation also enjoys these scents as well, because only He will ever smell the fragrance of the isolated little flowers of the uninhabited forest regions of our planet. But the delightful scents of nature that we find so enjoyable are muted by the sin that has so damaged and cursed our world. The blossoms that bloomed before the fall of our first parents in Eden must have shed a glorious fragrance indeed! But even those were not as wonderful to God as the sweetsmelling savour produced by the perfect life and vicarious death of His Son.
For the first time since the entry of sin into our world, God could look down on the earth and see One Who was perfectly obedient. He could rejoice that One was filled with desire to do the Father’s will. He could appreciate that the death of His Son on the cross was not a death caused by sin but a death that was a perfect payment for the sin of others. What God could appreciate of His Son He can appreciate of those who seek to be like His Son. As Christians seek to be obedient to the Word of God, as we submit ourselves to His will, as we take pleasure in doing the Father’s will, we also can be an offering that is of a sweet savour to God.
Sin is a rotten stench that God abhors. But obedience is a sweet fragrance that God enjoys. -Jim MacIntosh