"For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient [1] for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ" (2 Corinthians 2:15-17).
These are mighty words. Paul Barnett in his commentary on the 2 Corinthians, page 53-55, unpacks these verses as follows:
If incense impinges on the senses, even though invisible, so to Paul’s ministry makes its presence felt. . . Although an aroma of sacrifice is unseen, its presence is unmistakable in the nostrils of the worshipper. The point of the metaphor is that although the word of God is also invisible, there is no doubting of its effects. It divides its hearers into two groups; those who are being saved and those who are perishing (verse 15). For those who receive the word of God the message is the fragrance of life, but for those who reject it there is the smell of death...
It is through us he says that God spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of God. The sacrificial lifestyle of the messenger is an extension of the ministry and death of Jesus himself… The message incarnated in the messenger is a fragrance of life to those who obey it, but to others it has the odour of death. Barrett comments that “the apostles are the smoke that arises from the sacrifice of Christ to God
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