"But he shall wash the inwards and the legs with water: and . . . burn it upon the altar: it is a . . . sweet savour unto the Lord." Leviticus 1:13
Christ . . . hath given himself . . . a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour." Ephesians 5:2
Everything has some distinctive, identifying odor all its own. We may not be able to detect it with our limited sense of smell but it is there just the same. A dog can detect the scent of a rabbit or a bird where we notice nothing. Bees can detect intruders or bees from another hive right next to them by their different odor and immediately put them to death. Ants will follow the trail of other ants for long distances merely by the scent. The Christian, too, has a scent all his own. The spiritual Christian "smells like Jesus." Christ is the perfectly fragrant One, and contact with Him determines our fragrance. In the offering in the first chapter of Leviticus, the inwards and the bowels were to be burnt. Inwards contain the "offal," the corruption and waste matter of the body. It is offensive, putrid, and nauseating, to be carefully disposed of in private and never to be touched (Deuteronomy 23:13). It represents our sin and defilement. It must be burned up and destroyed.
The burnt offering is Jesus. He became sin for us. That loathsome, abominable thing - He took upon Himself and consumed it on the cross. His sacrifice for our putrid, nauseating offal of sin becomes acceptable to God and a "sweet smelling savour." Jesus is the fragrant One - all His garments "smell of myrrh" (Psalm 45:8). To be much with Him is to "smell like Him."
A servant girl was sent into the fields by her mistress to gather myrtle of which she was very fond. This "bog myrtle" was very fragrant, and after she had delivered it to her mistress she exclaimed, "And didn't I smell lovely myself when I was done?" The more we gather the flowers of Christ in the field of His Word, the more folks will detect His fragrance in our lives.
"Bread For Each Day"
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