The Means of Following God (2)

Based on Ephesians 5:2— And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour—we saw last time that love is not only a noun and adjective, but it is most importantly a verb.

We should note here that, as always, the duty Paul introduces in the latter half the Epistle is based on some doctrine he presented in first half. We are reminded again of the absolute necessity of doctrine. Martyn Lloyd-Jones puts it better than anyone: “Doctrine and behaviour are indissolubly linked together, and they must never be separated. It is no use talking about conduct and behaviour in a Christian sense without doctrine. And when people neglect doctrine you will always see it in their lives.”

In this case, then, the doctrine is presented in 3:17-19: “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” Because we are “rooted and grounded in love,” and because we “know the love of Christ,” we are, therefore, to “be filled with all the fulness of God” and will desire to mimic Him.

To prove Christ’s love for us, in fact, Paul goes on to say that Christ . . . hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God. Here we see more doctrine even in the practical portion of the letter, and its significance is deeper than any ocean. Given is paradidomi, which means to deliberately give up or hand over something without reservation. Hath given, then, reflects the Aorist Indicative tense, that is, a once-for-all past tense. Our Lord willingly surrendered Himself up once-for-all without hesitation or reservation. The word for is huper, which is, as one Greek authority puts it, this is “the great preposition of substitutionary atonement in the [New Testament] and means, ‘instead of, in behalf of.’ It does not merely mean that Christ died for us, for our benefit, but He died instead of us, in our place. He substituted for us, receiving the full impact of the divine wrath against sin.”

Paul then goes back to Old Testament pictures. The Greek behind offering (prosphora) is a word used in the New Testament that refers back to the blood offerings of the Old Testament Levitical system. Hebrews 10:10, for example, declares that “we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Our Lord accomplished once-for-all what the old Levitical system could only emulate. Instead of the countless millions of offerings that were given throughout Israel’s history, Christ needed to die only once.

Finally, sacrifice is thusia, from thuō, which refers to killing a sacrificial animal, as in Mark 14:12. So, our Lord is again referred to by Old Testament Levitical terminology. He was the fulfillment of what those old sacrifices could only picture. Even before the Levitical system, we read that after the flood, “Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled a sweet savour” (Gen. 8:20-21).

With that in mind, we note that Paul adds one more beautiful picture. True love is a sweet-smelling savour, a fragrant aroma, to God. This picture is taken from the Old Testament “sweet-savor” offerings that were presented at the altar of the temple. The term “sweet-savor” merely means that something pleases God in the sense that it satisfies His demands. We all can identify with that when we walk into our house and smell something wonderful cooking; that certainly satisfies our demands and is a great pleasure. Infinitely more, love “smells good” to God, it pleases and satisfies Him.

What, then, does all that show? Why did Paul go back to the old Levitical system for his illustrations? He borrowed from the old system simply to illustrate that if we really want our lives to be a “fragrant aroma” in the nostrils of God, then we must manifest our love for Him and other believers. Every deed done out of love is a sweet-smelling savour. While we’ve seen love several times in Ephesians, here we see the capstone, for love “smells good” to God.

May we close this chapter by repeating a truth that should constantly be emphasized today: Love is a VERB!