What Smells Good to God? (part 1)
Back when I was a single guy, I would go to the grocery store right after Easter and buy a huge ham. The prices always dropped dramatically on hams right after Easter, and I would walk way with a giant chunk of meat for a great price. I would throw the 6 lb. or more ham in the oven and just let it bake and bake. At the time I was sharing a house with 5 other guys who had just graduated college. The house we lived was a huge 3 story house with 6 bedrooms - it was huge. As the ham baked it slowly filled the entirety of the house with the smell of bacon. I don't think it is clear in the Bible whether or not the smell of bacon is pleasing to God, but it is certainly pleasing to man.
So why the title "What Smells Good to God?" Throughout the Bible their are lots of occurrences where we read that a smell, fragrance, or aroma was pleasing to God. In the early sacrificial system toward the beginning of the book, we find out that the animal sacrifices of atonement for sin were pleasing to God. Later in the New Testament we learn that all those animal sacrifices for sin were pointing to God's true once-and-for-all atoning sacrifice for sin, the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. We find out that God is well-pleased through the sacrifice for sin that Jesus made on the cross to make the way of atonement for all sinners who repent and put their faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross.
This is good news. The gospel is always a call for us to respond. Over the course of this 2 part blog post, I want to examine the sacrifice of Jesus and our own sacrificial response to the cross. First, I want to do this by looking at Jesus as the sacrifice for sin.
1. Christ the Sacrifice
The word sacrifice can sometimes be translated as "victim." Certainly when we look at God's plan of salvation we see that Christ became the victim of our sins. We have to understand the need for a sacrifice before we can move forward.
Sacrifice is necessary to turn away the wrath that the Holy God has to have for sin.
In Genesis 1, God created everything good and created man in His image. Man was to be the mirror of God's goodness to the world as he loved and cared for it. In Genesis 3, man is deceived and pursues moral autonomy and through man's disobedience to God, sin enters the world. The wages of sin is death, so God makes the first sacrifice for sin: And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. (Genesis 3:21 ESV)
Pure gold cannot handle a speck of dross or it wouldn't be pure. So it is with the Holy God. Even from the beginning, by killing an animal to make a 'covering' for Adam & Eve, God is revealing that blood must be shed - there must be a sacrifice offered for sin in order for creatures to be in His Holy presence. The purity of man in the beginning of creation has been made impure by the dross of sin.
I understand that the topic of a "good God" can not include Him pouring out His wrath on His creation. Often I used to get upset about the idea that God would punish sin. The Bible is clear that sin corrupts God's perfect creation. Sin also corrupts the peace and love in humanity we should have for one another. If you look on Facebook today, you can see we are certainly lacking in those two areas. Sin is the root of all the problems in this world.
But if we truly understand that sin is the cause and problem for all the evil in the world, and God is the all-good Creator of this world, we see clearly that He must do something about the problem of sin.
For God to be good, by His nature he cannot allow sin to dwell in His presence or in His creation.
At this point in our story, all looks hopeless!
This is where God himself enters the picture, to deal with sin once and for all. Jesus, the author of all creation, enters the story! A good God must deal with the problem of sin, and He does so by sending Jesus Christ into the world.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God." (John 3:16-18 ESV)
The Son of God who is himself God becomes a man. This is UNHEARD OF in any belief system except for Christianity. God himself deals with the biggest problem in the world, sin.
Jesus lives a holy and perfect life in the sight of God and under God's law, only using his abilities as a human. By his holy and perfect living, he does what we sinners could never do - for we could never in all our attempts at holiness, ever be perfect in God's sight. Then, Jesus submits himself in obedience to God's plan of salvation and redemption of His creation from the problem of sin. In the ultimate revealing act of God's love for us, He sends Jesus to the the cross. In the ultimate act revealing act of God's love for us, Jesus goes to the cross in humble submission to God's will that he should die for sin. The sacrificial Lamb willingly laid down his life for your sake and mine!
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:8 ESV)
Jesus becomes the ultimate sacrifice so that all who trust in him for the forgiveness of their sins can have atonement. We can now be restored to the Holy God! Where the fall and sin brought separation from God, the blood of Jesus shed on the cross brings about the return to God!
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. (1 Peter 2:24-25 ESV)
Even better, Jesus the sacrifice didn't remain in the tomb. Jesus was raised from the dead! This is why we preach the Good News! We believe that Jesus lived, died, and was raised again so that all who believe in him can have eternal life with God.
(SIDE NOTE: Everyone, Christian and non-believer should read and now this evidence for the resurrection of Christ from the dead. It is the most important thing you could ever be aware of. LINK)
Our belief that Jesus was raised from the dead is why we live the way we do! By grace through faith we come to hold dear this truth, "who [Jesus] was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." (Romans 4:25 ESV) Jesus was raised up for our justification.
Before the Holy God - despite the fact that we are sinners - we are declared just, righteous, whole.
As Christians, we have come to believe that God sent Jesus to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and we cling to this truth through our reasonable faith in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. We believe that as Jesus was raised from the dead so also we will be, to have eternal life with God. We know that we once were straying like sheep, we have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls.
Was Jesus' sacrifice acceptable to God?
"...Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."
(Ephesians 5:2 ESV)
Throughout the whole of the sacrificial system for sin in the Bible we find that the aroma of sacrifice being pleasing to God means that He accepted the sacrifice. Here we learn that Jesus giving up his life for our sake was a fragrant, acceptable offering to God.
God accepts the blood of Jesus shed on the cross in your place. God raised Jesus from the dead so that you also can be raised from the dead. Jesus loves us so much that he didn't just sit on the sidelines waiting for us to fix our problems of sin. Jesus entered into humanity's mess, sunk to its lowest point, and experienced the greatest end of sin - death. He did all this so that you might live!
"I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." (John 10:10b)
This is true for anyone and everyone who puts their faith in Jesus Christ. God accepts his sacrificial death as punishment for your sins, and you can return to Him! If you haven't trusted Christ yet, you can start your eternal life today.
As the song says, "I love because he first loved me, I live because he lives!"
Do you believe live because Jesus lives?
-----
"What Smells Good to God?" Part 2 will focus on the remaining two points:
1. Our response to God
2. The result of our response to God
END of Part 1
Comments
Post a Comment