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A Savor of Life and a Savor of Death
II Corinthians 2:15-16
by Gilbert Beebe
Signs of the Times - June 15, 1855.
"For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ, in them that are
saved, and in them that perish: to the one we are the savor of death unto
death; and to the other the savor of life unto life. And who is sufficient for
these things?"2 Cor. 2:15-16
The term "savor," signifies literally, anything that affects
the organs of taste or smell; a sweet savor, is that which has a pleasant odor
or taste. The incense and perfumed offerings which were made under the law,
were to signify such offerings as are acceptable to God, and things with which
God is well pleased; and in this sense we understand it is used by the apostle
in our text. In the preceding verse Paul says, "Now thanks be unto God,
which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of
his knowledge by us in every place: for we are unto God a sweet savor of
Christ," &c. As the members of Christ, as his apostles, standing in
him, by whom the savor of his knowledge is made known in every place, the
apostles, their gifts and labors in the gospel, are well pleasing to God, not
only in the effect produced on them that are saved, but also on them that
perish. In drawing the line between the living and the dead, in feeding,
comforting and building up the saints, and in exposing the hidden things of
dishonesty, they draw down on themselves the wrath and persecution of the
enemies of God and truth. So that in every place where they were called to
labor, whether men would hear or forbear to hear, whether sinners were
converted to God, or enraged by the testimony, in all cases God caused them to
triumph, or made their ministry effectual, either by bringing to light those
who have an ear to hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches, or in exposing
those who were of the opposite character; in no cases were their labors in vain
in. the Lord. "We are unto God a sweet savor of Christ." There was
nothing in even the apostles, which was well pleasing unto God but what was of
Christ. They, in themselves, were by nature children of wrath even as others,
hence all that they possessed as the children of God, disciples of Christ, or
apostles of the Lamb, was of Christ, and the savor of that treasure which was
committed to them, as unto earthen vessels, was a savor of Christ unto God.
Their election, their calling, their qualifications for the ministry, and their
administrations, were acceptable unto God by Jesus Christ.
"To the one we are the savor of death unto death." That
is to the one class, for they are presented in our subject as two classes, them
that are saved, and them that perish. To the latter class, the apostle says we
are the savor of life unto life. But how are we to understand this declaration?
Does he mean that the preaching of the gospel is to them who perish the cause
of their damnation, or of their perishing? That the gospel proposes to them
terms, conditions, and proffers, and their rejection of them, or failure to
comply with them, is the cause of their eternal death? Certainly not, for such
is not the truth. Neither the gospel itself, nor the preaching of the gospel,
can possibly injure any one. The gospel has no more power to damn, than the law
has to justify and save. Condemnation and wrath is by the law, justification
and immortality is by the gospel. The law is the administration of death, but
the gospel administers life only to them that are saved, for those unto whom
this life is administered cannot perish. Christ has said, I give unto them
eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall any pluck them out of
my hands. How then, are these apostles the savor of death unto death in them
that perish? We understand the matter thus, To them that are dead in trespasses
and sins, the preaching of the gospel only comes in the letter, or external
sound of it; it falls upon their deaf ears as a dead letter; it has no life in
it to them, inasmuch as they being dead, cannot receive it in its spirit and
life. Take a bird from the open air, and confine it in water, as its nature is
not adapted to the water, this element is death to the bird, but it is life to
the fish. But the water, although adapted to the nature of the living fish, can
administer no life to the dead fish. So the preaching of the apostles was to
the Jews a stumblingblock, and to the Greeks foolishness. The word can only
come to the dead, in the oldness of the letter, and not in the newness of the
Spirit. To them it comes in word only, not in power, or in the Holy Ghost, or
in much assurance, as it comes to quickened sinners; to them, Christ who is the
substance of the gospel, is as a root out of dry ground, having no form or
comeliness, and they have no desire for a knowledge of his ways, and the
preaching of the cross is to them foolishness. It being spiritual, and they
being carnal, they cannot comprehend it, they cannot feast upon it, nor can
they derive vitality from it until they are quickened by the Spirit, and born
of God; for the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit- for they
are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually
discerned.
But to the other, that is to the living children of God, who possess
life, the gospel is the power of God and the wisdom of God, it has life and
comfort in it to cheer, sustain and animate that life that is in them. It is
death to their carnal nature, to their outward man which perishes it has no
life; but the inward man is by it renewed day by day. Every Christian must know
in his own experience, that the gospel is full of life, joy and consolation to
them; it is marrow and fatness', it is a feast of fat things, of wines on the
lees and well refined. It is life to that life which is in them, for they live
upon it; it is Christ, and him crucified, and it is therefore the bread of
heaven unto them. When the apostles and primitive ministers of the word were
preaching, in all the examples recorded in the New Testament, there were some
who gladly received the word, who fed upon it, and there were others who had no
relish for it, who could not receive it, and who resisted and blasphemed. They
preached Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and to the Greeks
foolishness, but unto them who are called, both Jews and Greeks, it was Christ,
(and therefore life, for Christ is the Life) the power of God, and the wisdom
of God. "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish
foolishness- but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is
written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the
understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is
the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it
pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
"Not them which do not believe, it is death to them, but it is life to
them that believe, because they have life; they are the sheep of Christ, and
they hear his voice, and they know his voice; but a stranger they will not
follow, for they know not the voice of strangers.
"And who is sufficient for these things?" Who is sufficient to
discriminate between the living and the dead, between them that are saved, and
them that perish? Who is sufficient to pour forth into the hearts of God's
living children the streams of that river that makes glad the city of our God,
to warm, revive, comfort and refresh them, while in their pilgrimage, and to
bear the reproach, persecution, rage and violence of those unto whom the
preaching of the word is foolishness? Those, and those only, whom God sustains,
whom he causeth to triumph in Christ, as he did the apostles, are sufficient
for the work whereunto the Holy Ghost has called them. They can do all things,
through Christ who strengthens them. Through him they can feed the flock of
God, over the which the Holy Ghost has made them overseers, and through their
God they can rush through a troop, and leap over a wall. But no part of the
excellency of the power of the gospel is of them; it is of God, it is not a
sweet savor of themselves unto God. But they are a sweet savor of Christ unto
God, in them that are saved. The very fact that the gospel as preached by them
does not feed, comfort or build up the unregenerate, that it is death unto
death unto them that perish, is as irrefragable testimony that they are unto
God a sweet savor of Christ, as when they are the messengers of joy and comfort
to them that are saved. For the preaching of the cross, if preached in its
purity, is just as sure to be foolishness to the ungodly, as it is to be the
wisdom of God to them that are saved.
Please direct your comments to Mike
Krall.
