2 Corinthians 2:15

For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ The form of the expression is here altered in two ways: (1) the Apostle himself now becomes the -sweet savour," while (2) the idea of sacrifice is first brought in. The Apostle now uses the phrase used in the LXX. for a sacrificial odour (see note on last verse). The ministers of Christ are a sweet savour of Him, the great Atoning Sacrifice, not only because they make Him known, but because they are imbued and interpenetrated with the spirit of His Sacrifice, -always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus." And this not only in themselves but in those to whom they minister the Spirit of the Lord (cf. ch. 2 Corinthians 3:3) as soon as they in their turn begin to display the same spirit, or even in a certain sense (see next note) when they do not. See Ephesians 5:2; Philippians 4:18.

in them that are saved, and in them that perish The tense in the original speaks of no completedwork, but is strictly present: those who are in processof being saved or of perishing. Cf. Luke 13:23; Act 2:47; 1 Corinthians 1:18; ch. 2 Corinthians 4:3. The imagery of the triumphal procession is still before the Apostle. Someof those who took part in it were destined to rewards and honours, others were doomed to perpetual imprisonment or death. Christ and His servants are a savour of life unto them who are in the way of salvation, because through conformity to the spirit of Christ's sacrifice arises conformity to His life, a savour of death unto those who are not in the way of salvation, because a deliverance refused does but make destruction inevitable. Cf. Matthew 21:44; Luke 2:34; John 3:18-20; John 9:39; John 12:48; John 15:22.