Forgiveness: A Pleasant Aroma

Forgiveness is a pleasant aroma.

Over the past week, I stumbled across two candles in the store that respectively contained the words “faithfulness” and “forgiveness” with their definitions below. Though “God is faithful” is one of my favorite mantras, when I compared the scents, I knew forgiveness would be coming home with me.

The meaning given was “the action or process of forgiving or being forgiven: mercy, compassion, understanding.” After watching a powerful movie that popped up on my YouTube feed the other day, I realized the candle was truly purposed for me. Not so that it would be pleasing to my senses, but so that I could be a pleasant aroma to God.

Second Corinthians 2:15-16a says, ”For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. It’s interesting that the section of Scripture in which this verse is contained, follows a section that speaks of forgiveness. Forgiving the one who has caused excessive grief and sorrow to our souls (v. 5-11).

In verse 14, Paul speaks of us as disciples being called to “spread the aroma of the knowledge of God” everywhere we go. I believe this idea of the knowledge of God and forgiveness go hand in hand. When we come into the knowledge of Him, we are met with a stark realization of our otherness to Him. He is holy, and we are not. He is good, and we are not. He is perfection, and we are not. He is the only standard, and we are not.

And so, when we compare ourselves, not to each other, but to Him, His very being demands acknowledgment that we have sinned against a Holy God (Luke 18:9-14). And the only proper response to sin is repentance (1 John 1:5-10). It is to be in need of forgiveness from the One we have transgressed. And everybody needs that; even the people who think they don’t.

It’s funny how the heart hides what it is full of (Jeremiah 17:9). But God uncovers all (Hebrews 4:13). And He knows the things in us even we cannot see. I wasn't aware forgiveness was still an inner work to conquer. I had. I’d taken the action. But I love how the definition on the jar stated that it can also be a process.

One of my favorite authors, Lysa TerKeurst, wrote in her book Forgiving What You Can’t Forget that she learned she had to forgive for the offense committed against her. But not only that — she discovered that over time as life unfolded, she had to forgive for the impact of the offense too. She said if God had allowed the full weight of the sin done against us to lay upon us at once, we would break beneath it. For some of us, what He did allow felt like it would kill us then. But it didn’t. Because of His mercy, understanding, and compassion for us.

In Matthew 6:14-15 Jesus says that if we refuse to forgive others, He would refuse to forgive us. Why? I believe He explains it in the parable of the unmerciful servant (Matthew 18:21-35). It is to be a person in need and the recipient of a debt cancellation for which one can never repay, yet refusing to offer the same mercy to another who cannot repay their debt to us.

God says that neither the one who fails to ask for forgiveness nor the one who fails to forgive will be saved. They are opposite offenses deserving of the same judgment. I believe God holds forgiveness in such high esteem because it has everything to do with the aroma of Christ - of people seeing Him, knowing Him, and having the option to choose what kind of aroma He will be to them – death or life.

God doesn’t need His ambassadors, children who have been saved from His wrath for debts they could never repay, but His Son did, refusing to extend to others what they had already been gifted — forgiveness (Isaiah 53). And with that, freedom, new life, and hope (Galatians 5, Colossians 3:1-17, Romans 5). I love that the title of the YouTube movie is He Is All That Matters. The He is Christ. As a forgiven daughter, my whole life purpose and objective is to live not for me, but for Him. To live not for my desires, but His. To live not to avenge and comfort my wounds, but to set aside the life I want for me and to live in light of the wounds He took for me.

So, the grace and mercy of God visited me on a shelf at a store. He set forgiveness before me, reminding me that I am a sinner forgiven. And because of my impact, the sin in my life that won’t completely be crucified in this flesh until He perfects me, I’m in need of His daily and constant forgiveness still. So why, why wouldn’t I offer to someone something that I myself was and still am in need of — forgiveness? I will. Even if it's a process that must be done again and again. So that every time God and I walk around the room of my heart, we will experience its pleasant aroma.