In his death, Christ endured God’s wrath against our sin. Jesus carried out the full sentence, with no reprieve. This was a costly sacrifice, one that cost Jesus everything. And God accepted it. On that day there was no smoke that curled into the sky, yet Christ’s gift rose to heaven as a most pleasing fragrance. Breathe it in: this is the glorious gospel.
Certain smells we love.
Wood smoke in a campground on a summer evening. The smell of freshly baked bread. These are pleasing smells to us, happy and calming.
What kind of smell does God like? Ephesians 5:2 says that when Jesus gave himself for us, this was
a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Christ’s death was like a smell that God breathed in deeply and which gave him joy.
Now, Jesus’s dying, his blood being poured on the ground, probably didn’t have much of an odour—and if it did, it probably wasn’t that pleasant. To understand this “fragrant offering,” we turn to Leviticus. It describes the many kinds of offerings that God invited from his people. They would bring into the LORD’s presence a gift of grain, a measure of oil, or a choice animal.
A sacrifice like this was meaningful. For it was costly, highly prized by the person worshiping. This is why they brought flour that was finely ground—high quality stuff—or an unblemished animal. Or even the very first products you’d collected in the harvest, the part of the crop that you’d be most inclined to keep for yourself after all your hard work—yet you gave it away. Sacrifices come at a price.
More important than the cost of the sacrifice was the spirit of the person who brought it. These gifts were a way of saying to God that they were thankful for his gifts, or sorry for sins, or that they needed his help in a season of trouble.
Point is, the person sacrificing had to bring it with his whole heart.
Whenever a sacrifice was placed on the coals of the altar, the smell of burning went up to heaven. Imagine the aroma of burning animal flesh or burning incense. Leviticus says that such an offering would ascend “as a sweet aroma to the LORD.”
God doesn’t have a physical nose on a physical face. But it meant that a sacrifice was pleasing and acceptable. To him, this sacrifice gave off a good smell because the relationship was right, because
God knew that the worshiper’s heart was loyal.
Through all the centuries of Old Testament worship, there was never an offering that got a 10/10.