“We are God’s Triumph” 2 Corinthians 2:14-16

After Kansas City won the Super Bowl, the team returned home for a celebration. Despite the cold temperatures, the fans turned out in huge numbers to cheer the team as the Chief players rode buses down the street in a triumphant parade.

The tradition of a parade to celebrate is as old as civilization. We have parades to honor returning soldiers after a victory. The parades in Washington, D.C., after the Civil War lasted two days as the entire Union army marched down the streets of the nation’s capital.

We honor heroes with parades. The astronauts of Apollo 11 were paraded almost everywhere they went.

Parades are our way to salute, honor and celebrate those who accomplished great feats against dangerous odds.

In today’s passage, Paul uses the analogy of a triumphant parade to describe our relationship with God.

Background

It was the custom in Rome for the victorious general to return to Rome and have a victory parade. At the head of the parade, the conquering hero would ride in a chariot with a key aide or assistant. Behind him would come the other commanding officers on horseback, followed by the soldiers marching in order.

Included in the parade would be the riches that were gathered in the conquest, and coming up at the end of the parade would be the conquered survivors, those who were destined for slavery or the gladiator arenas.

Throughout the parade, incense bearers would march along the route. The smoke and the aroma of the fragrant incense would act as a marker and a symbol of the sweet smell of success. All of this to commemorate another Roman conquest.

Paul had this in mind as he wrote these few verses we look at today. In this passage, our key verse is v.14: “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.”

Central Truth: As God’s triumph, He uses us to spread the aroma of Christ.

As God’s triumph:

We are led by Him

The picture Paul is painting in these verses is one of God as the victorious general being praised for His great conquest. The win is over sin, death and Satan, and we are a part of the parade.

The emphasis is on God’s leadership and God’s supremacy. Because God is the victor, He has the right to parade us before the world. He alone is the dispenser of grace and mercy. He alone had the plan to redeem us through His Son Jesus Christ. He alone committed this supreme act of love by sending His Son.

Jesus deserves the praise and thanksgiving for willingly giving up His glory and place in order to come to our world, to become like us and so to minister to us by demonstrating the life of commitment and relationship. Jesus deserves our praise because He willingly went to Calvary and there paid for our sins and our rebelliousness.

And the Holy Spirit is worthy of praise because it is He who convicts us, who reawakens our dead spirit so that we may have faith, a faith that saves. He convicts, He opens our eyes, He shows us the true word of God.

There is a question about what it means that God leads us in this triumphal procession. There are some who seem to indicate that we share in the glory as the faithful soldiers in God’s army. While that certainly plays a part, in this instance, we are not the members of God’s army, but we are the prisoners who are paraded before the masses. Unlike the Romans, though, God’s prisoners are set free from sin and brought into God’s service. We are bought with a price, and God’s expectations are that we will live for Him by letting Him live through us.

As a part of the triumphal procession, we are the testimony of God’s great work. We are the ones who are shown to have come under His protection and into His relationship. We are a visual statement of God’s victory.

Just as the incense of the Roman parades wafted over the crowds and associated the aroma with conquest, we are that same aroma to the world of Jesus’ saving work. We are the fragrance of Christ in our world. Paul develops that idea in the next verse.

The faith statement that the Bible makes here is that we are a part of this parade because we saved by God and are therefore a testimony of His saving power. He always leads us, never forsaking us. He always leads us, preparing the way for us. He always leads us, a sure guide with a steady pace. God leads us, and He never stops. He includes us in this triumphal procession because we are His and He is our God, our Lord, our Savior. Always and forever more.

We are Christ among all people

Fragrances are important in our world. There are some smells that can transport us back to fond memories. I once told Stephen that I would give anything to once again smell the scent of Old Spice and stale cigarette smoke—that was my dad after a day at work. The aromas of certain foods take us back to special meals with family and friends.

Paul writes that we are the aroma of Christ to all people in the world. God uses that aroma to draw people to the awareness of Christ, to make His presence known in the world. He does this through our witness and through His Spirit’s power.

The reaction we have to any scent is to ask, “What’s that smell?” We are people who are both drawn and repelled by certain smells. And the smells stay with us. I can still remember driving past the Mrs. Baird’s bakery in Tyler. I’d role my window down to get as much as that wonderful smell for as long as I could.

Paul states we are the aroma of Christ for all people—those being saved and those not being saved. It is God’s plan that all should be saved, but He will only save those who come to Him through Christ. Still, He makes the awareness of Christ evident as He ministers through us.

How the world reacts to that aroma is the subject of the next verse.

We are a stark contrast

It’s interesting how we use different words to describe smells. “Aroma” has always had a positive connotation to me. I think of aromas when I think of foods and things I like. “Odor” is more of a negative sense—dirty sweat socks that should have been washed a week ago. Not pleasant, but not so bad as to make us want to run away. Then there’s “stench.” Stenches are things that drive us away. Either we’re rolling up the windows or rolling them down, depending on where the stench is coming from.

Paul states that as the fragrance from God, we are both an aroma and a stench, depending on who it affects. To those being saved, we are the fragrance of life. We are a positive influence, a welcome scent. To those who are coming into God’s family, we are a sweet aroma.

But to those who are perishing, we are stench of death. Such people are repulsed by the offer of God’s salvation through Christ. To them, it is a silly idea, a foolishness that defies logic and reason. Such people not only refuse to consider salvation, but seriously question how any person could follow Jesus. Rather than drawing people to Jesus by the fragrance, it forces them to run quickly as forcefully away.

Conclusion

It can be fun watching a parade, particularly if we have an interest in it. There have been parades we’ve attended because we had children in the parade.

Parades are an opportunity for the community to come together and celebrate or commemorate a special event or time. They are used to remind us that we are a community.

God’s parade is a reminder that His Gospel is available to all people. And it is a reminder and a promise to us that God always leads us.

The promise of God’s leadership, that we are His triumph, that we are His fragrance in our world, must lead us to see ourselves as secure in Him and in His plan. We are victorious and we are servants of the living God. Let us always be about His will.