2 Corinthians 2:12–17: Smells Like God’s Spirit

2 Corinthians 2:12–17 ESV

When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was opened for me in the Lord, my spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia. But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.

Introduction & Context

What do you think of when you think of “winning?” For some a famous athlete, coach, or team comes to mind. Others might think of career success or financial gain as the ultimate win. You might think of winning a board game, a debate, a dance-off, or any number of competitions. Today, I want to ask you to consider what you think winning life looks like.

We’re going to look at 2 Corinthians 2:12-17. In this passage, the Apostle continues to defend his choices, motives, and authority as an Apostle. In verses 12-17, he talks about moving from Troas to Macedonia in part because of his desire to hear about how the Corinthians are doing from Titus. Paul will pick back up on this story in chapter 7. As he often does in his letters, Paul interrupts the flow of his letter with a paragraph of thanksgiving and gospel explanation in verses 14-17. This is a beautiful passage of imagery from the Apostle. I want to invite you to dive in with me as we unpack Paul’s flow of thought and compare worldly victory with godly victory.

Two Paths of Victory

In this passage, Paul uses a vivid picture of victory to describe God’s triumph through the gospel. He uses the language of a Roman military victory procession. The “triumphal procession” of verse 14 was a parade of victory through a town when a Roman leader won a great battle. The losing captives were made to walk in front of the chariot of the victorious general as they were led to their execution at the end of the procession. The soldiers would follow behind literally singing the praises of their general. The crowds would chant. The religious people would spread incense along the path to show that their god had showed up for the party. It was a social event that we might compare to a Super-Bowl Parade. Paul knows that the Corinthians would have been familiar with the sights, sounds, and smells of what victory meant in their day.

It is important to remember that Paul’s reputation and character are being attacked and with these attacks, the true gospel is being undermined. The Corinthian church is beginning to let the way of the world flow into their thoughts about God. Paul’s letter continues to point out that the world’s way and God’s way don’t look the same. What the world celebrates as “winning” doesn’t line up with what God calls success.

Paul takes this very vivid imagery and uses it to describe God’s eternal victory through Jesus’ work in the gospel. He changes the characters and makes bold statements about what it really means to win in this life. I want us to look at the text and compare the two paths of victory to see Paul’s point. We’ll see three worldly versus godly contrasting statements. As we do, I want to ask that you would consider in your heart and life if you’re being led in the kind of victory that Paul describes, or if you’re seeking out victory through the world’s ways.

1. The world celebrates the self-sufficient. The gospel celebrates self-denial.

It feels good to be the winner. I mentioned earlier the board game box hall of fame. I’ll tell you guys, it is much more fun to be the one writing your name at the end of the game than the one watching someone else write their name. Winning in small ways or big ways immediately tempts our fallen flesh to pride. We believe that any time we win it is because of how good we are. No one brags about losing a game, a fight, or a deal at work. We don’t build statues of athletes who lost every game. In some sense, the world’s way of winning is really about pride or self-sufficiency. This would have been as normal to the Corinthians as it is to us. When it comes to what we imagine as victory, we see ourselves as the general on the chariot, or the quarterback at the parade. Winning to the world around us is when we get the praise.

In his prayer of thanksgiving, Paul does something that the world finds very strange. He celebrates God as the victor and seems to put himself in the position of the conquered captor. Imagine with me the losers singing the praises of the victors on their way to being executed. This is Paul’s position. He sees victory in his life and ministry not as a self-sufficient boast, but as a celebration in the fact that he has been conquered by God and his self-sufficiency has turned into self-denial. The Apostle sees all of his suffering, weaknesses, and even his eventual death as reasons to rejoice. Paul’s position is one that is confusing to the world around him. How can the loser celebrate like he’s the winner? Why would the defeated dance?

Here is what I think Paul wants to get across: God’s path of victory comes from self-denial and not from self-exaltation. If we see victory as elevation of self, we’ve missed the truth of the gospel that tells us that until we come to grips with our own rebellion against God and see what Christ has done to defeat our rebellion, we won’t understand how to embrace true victory. As long as we have to be the hero of the story, we will not understand how we can joyfully celebrate God’s conquering of sin and death.

Jesus told his disciples that anyone who “loses their life will find it.” But, we know that losing ourselves doesn’t seem enjoyable. We must remember that the reason we can celebrate minimizing ourselves is because of how good God really is. You see, Paul doesn’t rejoice in God’s victory because God came down and smashed him into the ground. Paul celebrates being conquered by God because he knows that God has conquered with the love and sacrifice of Jesus’ Christ. This is why Paul says that “God, in Christ, leads us in the triumphant procession.” I mentioned this above, but in the Roman procession, the prisoners were being led to their execution. If you were the loser, you were doomed to die unless a Roman general was feeling merciful on that day. So, how can Paul put himself in that position of the doomed and still celebrate? I believe it is because Paul delights in the deep beauty of how Jesus, the conquering King, won his victory. The Lord of Angel Armies became a baby in a manger and was hung on a cross. Process that the King of Kings stepped off of his heavenly chariot and walked the path of oppression and humiliation toward an execution so that he might invite his very enemies to grab hold of the victory that he rightfully deserved. This is the good news that will make sinners rejoice! In my own self-sufficiency, I am doomed to die. Sin and pride make me think that I am a conqueror, but the truth is that I am a slave to my sin. Because of Christ’s self-denial, though, I can have victory over sin, death, and the grave. Paul sees this and recognizes that Jesus’ path is the true path to winning. Give up yourself and you’ll finally find what winning in God feels like.

2. The world celebrates the momentary influence. The gospel celebrates knowing God forever.

This leads me to the second comparison between the world’s path to victory and God’s. The world is focused not only on self-sufficient victory, but also momentary influence. One of the primary problems with being the hero or the conqueror is that there is always another game to be played or another battle to be fought. Can you tell me who won the World Series thirteen years ago? What about sixty-five years ago? What happened to the richest man who lived 200 years ago? Do you see what I mean? Even the greatest wins according to the wisdom of the world are at best temporary pleasures.

In painting a picture of God’s victory procession, Paul does something that would have been socially and politically dangerous. He replaces Rome as the victor with God. He says in a sense, that the Emperor has won some earthly battles, but in the eternal worldwide conflict of all things, God is the only victor and Lord. Christians claim that God wins it all. In Paul’s day, the Emperor claimed to be Lord. What got the Apostles and other Christians in trouble with Rome was not that they were religious—there were hundreds of religions—but that they were an exclusively religious. Christians claimed that Rome only had a temporary lease on leadership. Jesus is the eternal Lord and King.

I want you to see that your eternal focus on God’s victory has to shape how you understand what winning really is. I point this out, because I know that for my own soul, it is so hard in moments to not want what the world calls winning. The comfort. The praise. The influence. It seems overwhelmingly important to chase after these things when I’m focused on what is right in front of me. The gospel, though, challenges you and I to zoom out from the moment and to consider the larger narrative of human history that finds its climax at the death and resurrection of Jesus. The world wants whatever influence and power it can hold on to right now, but it can only grasp what will fade away. Paul is telling the Corinthians that for his life and ministry, there is a more important and lasting victory to chase through submitting to God and embracing Christ’s path. Paul is praising God that through the Apostles, God “Spreads the knowledge of him everywhere.”

What victory are we chasing, church? Are we after the momentary battles of worldly success, or will we chase the eternal joy of knowing God forever? I don’t want to skip too far ahead, but in 2 Corinthians 3:11 Paul says: “For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.” The gospel frees us to see past the momentary “glories” of this world to embrace what is eternally permanent. Whose victory will we invest our lives in? Temporary and worldly victory of today, or the eternal victory of King Jesus?

The Aroma of Our Lives

Now that we have compared the two paths to victory, I want to take a moment and talk about how embracing God’s path of victory through submitting to Jesus begins to apply to the ways we think, talk, and act. I want to ask two questions of application based on the text.

How does Christ’s triumph transform my inner understanding of victory?

First, I want us to ask, “How does Christ’s triumph transform my inner understanding of victory?” We can see from Paul’s letter and what we know about his life that Jesus’ victory made a gigantic shift in his inner understanding of what it meant to “win” at life. For Paul, what the world counts as gain he considers loss in the grand scheme of things (Philippians 3:8). In 1 Corinthians 2:2, he tells his audience that “…I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” Paul views what true victory is through the lens of the cross of Jesus. Is this our understanding as well?

In 2 Corinthians 2:17 we see how God’s triumph in Christ through the cross transforms the motivating factors behind his apostolic ministry: “For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.” Many philosophers and teachers in Paul’s day used their intellect to make money and gain prominence. It seems like from Paul’s letter that some are using even the good news about Jesus from the wrong worldly motives. Paul seems to be re-directing the Corinthians back to what actual gospel ministry should be motivated by: the glory of God and the spread of the good news. The church’s victory comes not by the world’s means, but from the understanding of the gospel changing our inner understanding of what it really means to win.

So, like Paul, are we as Christians re-evaluating and re-defining our understanding of what winning life looks like through the story of the cross? I want to share three “P’s” that I believe should be directly impacted in the life of every believer based on a genuine understanding of Jesus’ triumph in the gospel. I will hit each one briefly:

Prayer. The reality of Jesus’ victory and triumph through the cross ought to impact our inner life of prayer. Jesus taught his disciples to pray for “the Kingdom to come.” When we understand God’s victory it ought to lead us to praise, thanksgiving, and a prayer life that emphasizes eternal victory over temporary comfort. Are you praying for eternal investments or temporary comforts?

Priorities. When you have a true understanding of Jesus’ triumph, it will change what you prioritize. Believers are called to prioritize God’s glory above their own, the good of people over earthly profit, and kingdom expansion over their own comfort. Jesus instructed his disciples in Matthew 6:33: “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

Plans.We get to the outward display of our words and actions with internal planning. One of the repeated themes of 2 Corinthians is how Paul’s plans seem to be always motivated by God’s Spirit and the gospel. One of the fastest ways to evaluate if you’re living for worldly victory or godly victory is to ask: what am I planning for right now? Are the things I am pursuing and the goals I set for my life based on my understanding of Jesus’ victory?

How does Christ’s triumph transform my outward expression of victory?

Jesus’ triumph in the gospel doesn’t just impact our inner life. It impacts all that we say and do as well. Paul connects his ministry to the “aroma” of Christ. 2 Corinthians 2:15–16 “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?”

What does your life smell like to others? When I think of that question, I can’t help but realize that how we smell might actually have a bigger impact on those around us than what we see or hear. As a dad with four boys, I can tell you that aroma is a powerful thing.

Paul says that as an Apostle spreading God’s word, the fragrance of the beauty of Jesus marks his life and ministry. I don’t believe that this analogy is only intended to apply to Apostles and preachers, though. The words we say and the choices we make really do impact the people around us like an aroma.

I want to ask you to consider your life in light of Paul’s image. Does the smell of Jesus’ life permeate what you do? Do those who recognize the source—the relational knowledge of God—see and smell the marks of God’s Spirit at work in your life? In contrast, Paul also recognizes that the sweet smell of Jesus doesn’t smell so sweet to the world. It smells like death and decay! Does your life conflict with the way of the world? One of the surest signs that we are operating on the path of the world’s victory is that there is no conflict between our lifestyle and the flow of the world.

Conclusion

I want to close with this: Paul asks the question, “Who is sufficient for these things?” The truth is that apart from Christ’s work in our lives and the presence of the Spirit, we cannot walk in the triumph of the cross. But, the good news is that as we continually see and smell the beautiful victory of Jesus, we will continually be transformed into who God has made us to be. Our hope is this: Jesus has won. The victory parade has started. We are joyfully willing to be captivated by God’s love for us and Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf. Let’s embrace godly victory as we seek to honor God this week. Amen.