A SAVOR OF LIFE AND A SAVOR OF
DEATH
II
Corinthians 2:15-16
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
Corinthians 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
stumbling block, 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 stumbling block, 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.
