Aroma of Christ

Article written by Pastor Phil Bray

The other day I was reading Pointing to the Pasturelands: Reflections on Evangelicalism, Doctrine, and Culture by J.I. Packer. He wrote an article, “How Will I Be Remembered” (pg. 60-62) detailing a conversation he had with a friend who once asked him, “How would you like to be remembered?” (pg. 60). As Packer ruminated through the article I found myself traveling trails through my mind, trails that I had boarded over and decidedly avoided for quite some time. You see, there were days in my life where the idea of leaving a legacy was intoxicating to me. I wanted to be known, loved, and remembered. I wanted my name to be like the names of Charles Spurgeon, Martin Lloyd-Jones, and John Piper. I wanted to be a famous preacher who changed the world for Christ. Yet, what the Lord eventually revealed to me was that I was not seeking for His name to be made great. No. I was using Him as a means to make my name great. I needed desperately to heed the words of John the Baptist, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30). 

In an effort to steer my heart into true humility I intentionally abandoned thoughts regarding the leaving of legacies. Yet, Packer’s article intrigued me. The question is not so much about the reputation and stature I hoped to obtain. Rather it was more about what kind of person would I be remembered as, especially by my wife, my children, my grandchildren, and my church family. It is those closest to you who know you the best. What will they remember about me when I am gone? As I contemplated these ideas I forced myself to think about what it would be like to be remembered. Surely it is not terribly morose to think of yourself as dead and the subject of conversation around the table after the funeral is it? What would they say about me? What would I want them to remember about me? 

It was then that 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 came to my mind, “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?” It is through me, through you as well, that God manifests or makes Himself known as a sweet aroma of the knowledge of Christ. It is through us that others can smell the sweetness and goodness of Christ. We are the fragrance of Christ to those around us. 

That is what I want I think. I want to be remembered as someone through whom Christ’s love and joy and peace and gladness was experienced and enjoyed. I want my family and my church to remember me as one through whom the fragrance of Christ could be sensed and enjoyed. I want my children and grandchildren to delight in Jesus as a result of being around me. I want them to be irresistibly drawn to Jesus through me, like starved men are drawn to a bakery as the sweet rolls come bursting forth from the oven. I want the beauty and goodness and kindness and love of Christ to be be experienced through me for His glory and their good. 
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What about you? How do you want to be remembered? ​