3-15-21 THOUGHTS

Below, the “triumph in Christ” is a picture from Roman military celebrations.  I get from the passage that the VICTORY is finished and we are always led by Christ in that ETERNAL VICTORY!         “Among the procession incense bearers swing censers and clouds of heavy, sweet-smelling incense drift through the crowd. It is the scent of Victory!  But at the rear of the procession are the poor captives in chains who are doomed to die. They will be executed when the procession reaches the Capitol. To them the scent of incense is not the smell of victory, but the stench of death and the smell of defeat.”  https://revdhj.wordpress.com/tag/roman-victory-procession/

Read these passages carefully...
2Cor 2:14-3:5     But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. 15  For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing;  16  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?  17  For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.     1 ¶  Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you? 2  You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; 3  being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.  4  Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. 5  Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,

The victory belongs to Christ and we share in it!  We... those who share in this victory,  become the focus of this passage section.  WE are the MANIFESTORS...  those who make known! WE are a fragrance, a sweet aroma.  WE sincerely speak of CHRIST in God’s sight.  WE are a LIVING LETTER WRITTEN BY GOD’S SPIRIT!  HIS WORD IS WRITTEN ON OUR HEARTS!   [Heb 8:10; Heb 10:16]    It isn’t from us, IT IS FROM GOD!

Eph 3:8-12   To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, 9  and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; 10  so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. 11  This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12  in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.

My Prayer:
Thank you O God for the victory that is in Christ Jesus.  Help us fulfill our part in your great plan to save man.  We ask that you make us this living letter written by your Spirit.  Give us this confidence that only comes from you.   In the precious name of Jesus            Amen