Smell the Fragrant Aroma of Christ

 For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing."  --2 Corinthians 2:15

We're on the fourth sense, smell, in Andrew Farley's book, Heaven is Now--Awakening Your Five Spiritual Senses to the Wonders of Grace.  

Question 1:  At any point in your life, could you relate to Michael, who had a surface-level understanding of Christianity, but didn't really know what it meant to have Christ's life in him?

In the book Dr. Farley tells about a man named Michael who came to him frustrated saying, "I'm doing everything I can think of, but I see no real change in my life." He'd grown up in the church, gone to Christian schools and immersed himself in Christian literature.  He'd lived his life to God's service in various ways.  Dr. Farley asked him his definition of what it means to be a Christian.  Michael responded, "You believe in Jesus and that he died on the cross, and you devote your life to obeying his Word."

Dr. Farley disagreed.  He said, 

"Being a Christian is not about giving our life to serving God; it's about God doing away with our life and giving his life to us!....God is looking to be a new source of life to us.  He invites us to receive Christ's resurrected life within us.  That's what it means to be a Christian."  

Michael wasn't sure he had the Holy Spirit so Dr. Farley said, "Invite Jesus Christ to be the resurrection life and the power for change within you that you so desperately want."

Question 2:  At Christmas we celebrate the incarnation of Christ--Jesus coming to earth in human flesh.  How might our own compatibility with the life of Christ now residing in us give us even more appreciation as we celebrate Christmas?

Dr. Farley answers the question as to why Jesus was incarnated as a baby, "to demonstrate that his divinity is 100% compatible with our humanity....so...that same life could be on display in us!"  He says this means we can stop trying to imitate the actions of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels.  Instead, "We can allow the risen Christ, who is alive and living in us, to be himself in and through our unique personalities."  2 Peter 1:4 says, "We were designed to partake of his divine nature."

For me, knowing that anything life throws at me the Holy Spirit in me has experienced while in the flesh is comforting.  I have a sympathetic, all-knowing, all-powerful companion with me at all times.

Question 3:  How is Christ living through us different from us merely living for Christ?

Dr. Farley explains the difference between commitment (which Michael had) and surrender:  "Commitment occurs when a person believes they are strong and capable.  Surrender is the opposite:  We surrender when we feel that we have nothing more to give."  When Michael surrendered his own efforts to change, the Holy Spirit became the source of the change Michael was seeking.

I've been there myself, thinking I had to do everything within my own power and only ask for God's help when I thought I "needed" it.  I was "committed" to being a "good" Christian, but I was setting goals that were not within MY power to accomplish.  No wonder I sought freedom in Christ so diligently!  I wrote my blog by the same name in 2003 and posted on-line in 2011, as my attempt to discover the "secret" to experiencing the freedom God promises.  It wasn't until I "stumbled" upon Andrew Farley's YouTube videos some years ago that everything I'd been learning about the Holy Spirit's role in my life began to be crystal clear to me. 

"The most important realization a person can come to is this:  we are not bad and in need of being good we are dead and in need of life."

Dr. Farley explains that Adam and Eve ate from the tree of morality and ethics and gained a sense of good and evil, but in the process they lost life.  He says, "They began looking to do good and avoid evil.  Doing good gave them a feeling of rightness, of God-likeness.  But morality and ethics are no substitute for displaying God's divine life."  He says awakening to the difference between religion (doing good and avoiding evil) and life (Christ in you) gives us our first hint of the fragrant aroma of Jesus Christ.  

Whenever I see the word "awakening" I imagine something that has been there all along but has lain dormant.  I was clearing out my attic some years ago of things I no longer used, like the old-fashion hair dryer from the 1960s.  It was a mini-version of the kind you found in beauty parlors that you sat under.  The lid became the part you put your head under.  When I released the latches and opened it up the smell of that plastic immediately took me back to being a teenager!  I've had perfume and powders do the same thing.  Memories that had lain dormant until one of my senses awakened the memory.  When Jesus gave his life for our sins he removed the guilt that had kept our spiritual senses from being made live again.  Now we were able to taste, see, hear, smell, and feel our Creator and be reconciled/restored to Him through the resurrection of Jesus, the Christ.

"He asks us to honor him with our body as we offer it as a living sacrifice and reap the benefits of housing his Spirit within us.  This is a most sensible and worshipful act that leads to his life expressed through us."

Question 4:  "All of God and none of us"---how does this idea fall short, and how does our union with Christ explain things better?

Dr. Farley says, "God is not trying to replace us.  He already has with a new self....It's all of him, and all of us, in a beautiful spiritual union.  God does not consume us or circumvent us.  He dwells within the  midst of all that you call you!....We Christians still commit sins (1 John 2:1) but now it is abnormal and unnatural.  To keep on sinning causes us great grief because 1 Corinthians 6:17 tells us we "are one with Jesus in spirit."

"In the end it's about relationship, not performance.  If we fix our eyes on a particular outcome, then we are worshipping the outcome, not Jesus.  Heaven invites us to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2)."

"Jesus is able to do more than you can possibly ask for or imagine, as it is his power that is at work in our life.  As we walk with him we will indeed labor and strive, but it will be according to his power at work in us.  Dr. Farley says the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) is born from a place of rest.  His Spirit radiates through your life, "as you rest in the truth of his finished work....Your own emotions will sometimes betray you as they are not aligned with his truth."

Question 5:  What would you say to someone who seems fearful of "surrendering" to Christ living through them because they are afraid of 'God's Will' for their life?

Dr. Farley remind us, "We are raised and seated right next to Christ and one spirit with him (1 Corinthians 6:17) on the day we first believed.  We cannot get any closer to Jesus than we already are....We are no longer doing to be close; instead we are acting out of a closeness we already enjoy.  This is what it means to smell the fragrant aroma of Christ." 

Dr. Farley concludes asking, "What does this mean for us?  Christ is not a far-off Someone we call upon now and then...We don't have to go "shopping" for more of Jesus.  (See 2 Peter 1:3)

"We already have all we need to live the 'Christian life' (Philippians 4:19)....Don't look to the creation but rather to the Creator for all your needs....We are designed to bear the promised fruit of God's Spirit."

Dr. Farley uses FedEx's method of routing pickups and deliveries based on their transportation hubs as an example.  They do not always use a direct route.  In the same way, God may lead us to our destination in a way that does not make sense to us, but we can be sure we are predestined to arrive at conformity to Christ's image (Romans 8:29) via one route or another (Philippians 1:6).  Dr. Farley adds, "God is always on time."  As our Creator He really does know the best route to bring us Home safely and on time!

Father, understanding that salvation is all about Jesus living in me and not dependent on my performance really does free me to keep my eyes fixed on him and not myself.

Link to Scripture:  Romans 7:4

Take Action:  Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus