CHRIST the SWEET SAVOR: “And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma” (Eph 5:2). Years ago, I read a story in the Sunday School Times that I never forgot. It told about a lady who made a daily commute by train, the route which passed a highly offensive glue factory. To offset this, at the appropriate moment she would take a bottle of smelling salts from her purse which she used until the train was past the stench. But one day, a new traveler saw her uncap the bottle just at the moment the terrible smell reached his nose. “Ma’am,” he said, “would you please put the cork back in your bottle!” So it is with many who find the Christian and his Christ obnoxious, when in fact it is the world that is rotting with corruption. Some, however, smell the fragrance of the Lord by us (a work of God, 2 Cor 2:14) and respond in faith, receiving the One who “has loved us and given Himself for us.”
