The Sweet Savour of Christ

And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us [you], and hath given himself for us [you] an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. – Ephesians 5: 2

[Before I get into an explanation of this verse, I would like to make you aware that Ephesians is the apex of the revelation to the Church of the Body of Christ to which every born again believer belongs. At times I will read Ephesians every day in the morning.]

This word ‘savour’ is referring to a sweet odor or something that is sweet smelling. This is referring to Jesus Christ and the sacrifice that he made for us. We share in that sweet savour. It’s really a beautiful figure of speech referring to our lives. We went from the odor of death unto this sweet smell of a new life. Most people usually do not understand the title of this teaching. It was taught to me back in the 70’s and the ‘new life’ image always comforted me. The next few verses talk specifically about this sweet savour of Christ. Again, we are going to the Church epistles that are written directly to the Church of the Body of Christ – us.

Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour [fragrance] of his knowledge by us in every place. – II Corinthians 2: 14

Now we always triumph in Christ when we stay in fellowship with God and confess any sins we may commit. Every man and woman sins at one time or another. Fellowship is the secret. When we walk with God, we always seem to have a sweet fragrance in the air. As I said, it’s a beautiful figure. The next verse tells us how we appear to God when we are in fellowship and harmony with Him.

For we are unto God a sweet savour [fragrance] of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: -- II Corinthians 2: 15

To others who come to us for help and we share God’s Word with them with the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation, we are a sweet fragrance – pleasant and comforting. We give a lost soul hope. In the first true Christian meeting I ever went to, I sat there with tears in my eyes. I never looked back. Back to the verse and the last word. ‘Perish’ can be referred to those who are lost.

To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? -- II Corinthians 2: 16

Don’t waste your time with the God-rejecters. You are not a sweet fragrance unto them, but to them you are the smell of death. God’s Word refers to these people as goats. Don’t let them waste your time. It’s a trick. Get away and never fellowship with darkness. Be careful in this area – it’s easy to be fooled. Who is sufficient for these things (all-encompassing our walk with God)? We are, but remember our sufficiency is from God.

I am going to include the next verse because it shows us the result of manifesting this sweet fragrance – the why and how.

For we are not as many, which corrupt [water down] the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ. -- II Corinthians 2: 17

The term ‘water’ down’ is the key here. In this website, there is no guesswork. The Word of God is rightly divided. When we register for Christian search engines, I have often used this term in my site description. If you will look at the second page of this website, you will see that our explanation says basically the same thing – only worded differently. We do not water down or corrupt the Word of God. We looked at other Bible websites and they speak much nonsense. They interpret verses however they feel like it. The Word of God interprets itself. For instance, did you know that the Nicene Creed has no Biblical backing whatsoever? It was written by men who know nothing about rightly dividing God’s Word.

Now to add some balance to this teaching, we are going to go to the Old Testament and study some Scriptures that use this same term ‘sweet savour’. I want you to take note of a relationship that takes place here. Let’s go to Exodus.

And thou shalt burn the whole ram upon the altar: it is a burnt offering unto the Lord: it is a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the Lord. – Exodus 29: 18

Young’s Concordance refers to ‘sweet savour’ as a sweet thing or sweetness. Note that it is referring to burnt offerings unto the Lord. What offering are we or should we be familiar with? We will get back to that. First, I want to teach you something that will help you to understand the Bible and God more fully and clear up any confusion you might have.

God sometimes accommodates man by allowing certain actions. GOD NEVER WANTED BURNT OFFERINGS! However, He knew that man wanted burnt offerings made to God and that was the only way man would worship God. So God turned His head and said ‘Go ahead’. The true God never wanted animals to be sacrificed to Him so that should comfort all you animal lovers and I am one of them. This truth may be a strange revelation to you – just don’t dwell on it and start thinking about exceptions. This was a rare case. Do not take what is taught out of context or you will get yourself in trouble. This situation only applied to Old Testament believers who were not born again. They got a charge out of offerings made by fire unto the Lord. There are many of these references made in the Old Testament. Here is another more detailed example in Leviticus.

But his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water: and the priest shall burn all on the altar, to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord. – Leviticus 1: 9

Sweet savour is also referred here as a sweet thing or sweetness and this offering is quite similar to the offering in Exodus 29: 18. Moving on to our last example here in the Old Testament, this talks about a stranger or anyone who wants to make this offering with you.

And if a stranger sojourn with you, or whosoever be among you in your generations, and will offer an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord; as ye do, so he shall do. – Numbers 15: 14

There it is again – ‘of a sweet savour unto the Lord’. These two believers did this together as stressed in the last part of the verse. There was harmony and unity, not hostility, confusion, jealousy and ambitious rivalry like we have today. Believers loved one another – they cared for each other. They took strangers in off the street and invited them in for dinner.

With a good concordance (I use Young’s), you can find many more Old Testament examples pertaining to this subject.

Now I want you to think about the ultimate sacrifice that God planned much later. Mary was the only woman on earth who believed God so God had impregnated her with Jesus Christ referred to as the divine conception. NO! She was not the Mother of God because Jesus Christ was not God, but the Son of God. That’s all religion. The ULTIMATE SACRIFICE which permanently eliminated the need for burnt offering sacrifices was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. As it says in the Bible, by the man Adam we lost it all, by the man Jesus Christ, we got it back.

Now I want to explain a very important term that many believers do not fully understand. No Scriptures because there are too many on this subject. I am talking about the Passover. For some reason, this word has given me no end of trouble in the past. But I found out that the explanation is very, very simple. You remember in the Old Testament, that the king of Egypt would not let the Israelites leave his land. Finally, God became extremely agitated and told the king that the firstborn in Egypt would die at midnight as God allowed a cloud of death to overcome this area. When certain people, such as believers, placed a coating of blood over their doorframe, that spirit of death would ‘pass over’ that home and it would be protected from this horrible fate. This actually took place and the king finally released the Israelites. Afterwards the Israelites would celebrate this time every single year and they called it the feast of the Passover. Now the words Passover are to represent the death spirit that passed over each home that did what God told them to do. That was to take the blood of the sacrificed animal and smear it across their doorframes. It’s that simple to understand. You also need to understand that by one man, Adam, we lost everything, but by one man Jesus Christ we gained it all back. So celebrating the Passover each year is not necessary anymore because Jesus Christ was the ultimate Passover – he was the ultimate sacrifice. There are still some people, especially the Judeans, that will celebrate the Passover. That is because they do not believe that Jesus Christ came upon the earth. Like I’ve heard it said before, if you want to go to hell, that’s your prerogative. There are tons and tons of proof not only in the Bible, that Jesus Christ walked the face of this earth and was crucified on the cross for our sins. The enemy has that much power that he can blind people to this truth unless they believe that Word of God.

Wherefore, as by one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: -- Romans 5: 12

I should add a small note here that I guess aggravates most women, but I didn’t write the book. Adam was never deceived. It was Eve who was initially deceived and convinced Adam to follow her actions. When Adam sinned, he transferred all the authority and power that he had to the devil. We are still living in that second heaven and earth and looking forward to the third when Jesus Christ will return as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. In the meantime, we are stuck living in this particular age and it is getting worse and worse every single day. As I said many times, I believe Christ is returning sooner than we think. The following Scripture backs up Romans 5: 12 and even presents a clearer picture of the simple point that I’m trying to make as a result of Adam’s transgression and a sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for us.

For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. -- Romans 5: 19

The one man mentioned above is of course Adam. He is the reason we were born with what is called Original Sin. Until we got born again of God’s Spirit, we belonged to the God of this world. We usually refer to this time period as the old man. By the obedience of Jesus Christ to do God’s Will, and die on the cross, many people, referring to those who are born again Christians, are made righteous. A born again Christian no longer belongs to the devil. But that Christian must renew his mind (change his or her thinking) to what the Word of God says to manifest this righteousness and to live the more than abundant life. It’s really very simple but some of these concepts and principles, many people do not understand because they never even opened the Bible, let alone read and study and apply it. It is my opinion that we as Christians are becoming very much of a minority in this world today. In the Bible it states that the world is getting worse and worse and worse and I can see that happening wherever I go and no matter what I do. Material idolatry has become a way of life with mostly all people. I plan to do a teaching on the subject next.

When we become born again, our life becomes like a sweet smell and as you remember, that is the topic of this teaching. Otherwise, our life stinks if you know what I mean. There is simply nothing to live for and nothing to look forward to because Satan is out there waiting to steal and kill and destroy anything or anybody that he can. He is also at an intense state lately because he knows his time is short. He has people worshiping material things and objects and being rude and ruder to brothers and sisters - to his fellow human beings. Walking around with a cell phone when you are in a quiet lonely mountain takes away any peace that you may have had in the past. As I said before, I live amongst idiots who buy trucks and put loud pipes on them so that they can be heard and that they can get attention wherever they go. That’s what they live for. You might as well be dead. But the point I’m trying to make is that those who do not manifest that sweet savour of Jesus Christ manifest the savour of death.

On a positive and concluding note, it has been my intention lately that you start to study on your own and not to depend only on these teachings. We, who are born again of God’s Spirit manifests that sweet savour – that fragrance – of Jesus Christ. Our lives are a blessing to anyone who is trying to believe and give some respect to the true God. We seem to be less of a majority than ever before. But remember some of my teachings and one of them is “Do Not React”. At times, this is very difficult to do but we must focus on the Word of God and look straight ahead each day which means to concentrate and focus and become clear and concerned about what we are doing. God doesn’t want us to look around because He knows that we will be distracted. Remember, and I know it sounds rather negative but in reality it is not. When it comes to the Word of God which is God, you have no friends. You need to be able to stand all by yourself if you have to. Many thousands of believers that I once knew have fallen by the wayside – the pressure was just too much for them. I too feel this pressure and it is rather intense. It is referred to as tribulation which is mental pressure to conform to this world and to become like everybody else. I’m not going to go into a million Scriptures at the end of this teaching but I’m going to tell you that God says we are a peculiar people. That means that we are different than everyone else because we live for the true God while they are control by the counterfeit god. Once that god gets a toehold in your life, then he gets a foothold and believe me he’s hard to shake. So continue studying and you will manifest that sweet savour of Christ and just when you think things are really bad, the true God will come through for you and He will bless you more than abundantly in ways that you least expect. So don’t give up and remember these very notable Scriptures and don’t ever forget them:

I can do all things through Christ which [who] strengthenth me. -- Philippians 4: 13

And once again, I will give you the literal translation:

“I am ready for everything and equal to anything through him who infuses inner strength into me”.

God will blow your mind when you experience the next Scripture:

Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. – Ephesians 3: 20

Don’t look to the left nor to the right, but continue to manifest that sweet savour of Christ.

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