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SIN HAS A STENCH!

From the Stench of Death to the Fragrance of Christ

By Pst. JK Woodall

Have you ever walked into a room and immediately noticed a smell? Sometimes you don't even have to see what's causing it. You know something is dead. And depending on how long it has been there, the smell can be so strong that it will take your breath away.

That's the thing about death. Death has an odor. The longer something has been dead, the more noticeable the smell becomes.

Remember when Jesus went to the tomb of Lazarus? Martha tried to stop Him from having the stone removed. She said:

John 11:39 (KJV)

"Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days."

Martha wasn't questioning whether Jesus could perform a miracle. She was reminding Him of the condition of the body. Lazarus had been dead long enough for decomposition to set in. There was a smell associated with his death, and she knew what would happen when that tomb was opened.

But I want you to think about something.

What did the world smell like when Jesus entered it?

I'm not talking about the natural odors of the cities, streets, or people. I'm asking you to consider the spiritual condition of the world Jesus came to save.

You see, humanity had been living under the consequences of sin and death since Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden.

And that brings me to the title of this message:

SIN HAS A STENCH!

Death Entered Through One Man

Let's go back to the beginning.

Genesis 2:17 (KJV)

"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."

Adam and Eve continued to live physically after their disobedience. They had children. They experienced generations of life. But something had changed. Sin had entered, and humanity was now separated from the life and fellowship it had experienced with God.

Paul explains it this way:

Romans 5:12 (KJV)

"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:"

Think about that!

Adam introduced something into the human experience that humanity could not get rid of. Sin entered, and death followed.

And from that point forward, humanity was living under the reign of death.

Now, when I say humanity was dead, I'm not suggesting that everybody physically died at the same time. I'm talking about the spiritual condition that sin introduced.

Paul makes that distinction very clear.

Ephesians 2:1 (KJV)

"And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;"

Paul says we were dead!

Not wounded. Not simply struggling. Not just having a bad day. We were dead in trespasses and sins.

And if we follow the picture of Lazarus, death has a smell.

The World Had Been Carrying the Stench of Sin

Look at the world that Jesus entered.

Cain had already murdered his brother Abel. The earth had become filled with violence. Humanity had become corrupt. Generation after generation demonstrated the destructive consequences of sin.

Genesis 6:5 (KJV)

"And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

This is the condition of the world before the flood.

Now think about the generations that followed. Humanity continued to struggle with the very thing Adam introduced.

By the time Jesus came, the world had been under the consequences of sin and death for thousands of years.

Lazarus had been dead four days, and Martha was concerned about the smell.

But humanity had been living under the reign of death since Adam!

I want you to think about that.

Sin has a stench because sin produces death, and death produces corruption.

We may not be able to smell spiritual death with our natural noses, but we can certainly see its evidence in the world around us.

Jesus Entered the World Anyway!

Now here's where the message gets interesting.

Jesus didn't come into a world that had everything together. He didn't come looking for a perfect generation. He came into a world that desperately needed a Savior.

John 1:14 (KJV)

"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us..."

The Word became flesh!

God entered the human experience. Jesus took on a human body and came to live among the very people who needed redemption.

And I want you to consider the significance of that.

When Jesus stood outside Lazarus' tomb, Martha warned Him about the smell. She knew the body was decomposing.

But Jesus didn't back away.

He told them to remove the stone.

Then He called Lazarus by name.

John 11:43–44 (KJV)

"And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.

And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go."

Jesus called life out of a place that had been occupied by death.

And isn't that what He came to do for humanity?

He came to call us out of the condition that Adam introduced.

Romans 5:8 (KJV)

"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

Notice the timing.

While we were yet sinners!

He didn't wait for us to clean ourselves up. He didn't wait for us to correct our behavior. He came while we were still in the condition that required His intervention.

Jesus didn't come because we had overcome sin. He came because we couldn't overcome it ourselves.

Jesus Didn't Come to Cover the Stench. He Came to Cleanse Us!

Now this is something I really want us to understand.

There is a difference between covering up a smell and removing the source of the smell.

You can spray perfume in a room, but if something is still decomposing in that room, the smell will eventually return.

You haven't corrected the problem. You've only covered it temporarily.

And I believe we sometimes approach Christianity the same way.

We try to cover up the evidence of our old lives. We change our appearance, change our surroundings, change our vocabulary, and sometimes change our behavior. But changing the outside doesn't necessarily change what's happening on the inside.

Jesus didn't come to put perfume on a dead humanity.

He came to cleanse us and give us life!

Look at what John writes:

1 John 1:7 (KJV)

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin."

The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin!

He didn't come to disguise our condition. He came to deal with the condition itself.

And the cleansing is not simply about what people see. It is about our relationship with God being restored through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Titus 3:5 (KJV)

"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;"

There it is!

Washing. Regeneration. Renewal.

God isn't simply decorating the old life. He is bringing about a new life through His Spirit.

From the Stench of Death to the Fragrance of Christ

Now I want to bring something else into this conversation.

Paul uses an interesting expression when he describes believers.

2 Corinthians 2:14–15 (KJV)

"Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.

For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:"

Did you catch that?

Paul says we are a sweet savour of Christ!

Now think about the progression.

We were dead in sin. Through Jesus, we have been cleansed. We have been made alive in Christ. And now our lives become a fragrance that represents Him.

What a transformation!

We went from being identified with the condition of death to carrying the fragrance of Christ.

And I want you to notice something else.

Ephesians 5:2 (KJV)

"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 sweetsmelling savour."

Jesus offered Himself as a sweet-smelling sacrifice to God.

His sacrifice was acceptable before the Father. Through His death and resurrection, we have the opportunity to be reconciled to God.

And now Paul tells us to walk in love.

Why? Because our lives should reflect the One who gave Himself for us.

We should not continue to carry the attitudes, behaviors, and practices of the very life from which Christ delivered us.

Our lives should smell like the One who saved us!

We Are a New Creation!

2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV)

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

I love this Scripture because it takes us beyond the idea of simply cleaning up our old lives.

We are a new creation in Christ.

Think about Lazarus again. When Jesus called him out of the tomb, Lazarus came out alive, but he was still wearing his graveclothes.

Jesus told those standing nearby to loose him and let him go.

There is a difference between being brought out of the grave and continuing to walk around dressed for the grave.

And I think there is a lesson there for us.

Jesus has given us new life. We should not insist on wearing the identity of the life He brought us out of.

We shouldn't keep identifying ourselves by the things that once held us captive.

We have been made alive in Christ!

Romans 6:4 (KJV)

"Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."

We are supposed to walk differently because we have received a different life.

The Final Thought: What Do You Smell Like Now?

I want to bring this message back to where we started.

Lazarus had been dead four days. Martha knew there would be a smell when the tomb was opened.

But Jesus called him out anyway.

Humanity had been living under the consequences of Adam's sin for generations. We were dead in trespasses and sins. But Jesus came anyway.

He came into our condition.

He gave Himself for us.

His blood cleanses us.

His resurrection gives us hope.

And through Him, we become new creations.

Now Paul tells us that we are a sweet savour of Christ.

So here's my question:

Are you still carrying the fragrance of the life you came out of, or are you allowing the life of Christ to be manifested through you?

You see, I don't want to spend my life trying to cover up the smell of something that Jesus has already given me the power to leave behind.

I don't want to keep wearing the graveclothes of yesterday when Jesus has called me into newness of life.

I don't want my life to advertise the death that once held me. I want my life to reveal the Christ who brought me out!

And that's why I can say:

SIN HAS A STENCH, BUT JESUS HAS A FRAGRANCE!

The stench of sin brought death. The blood of Jesus brought cleansing. The resurrection of Jesus brought life. And now, through Christ, we carry a new fragrance.

We may have come from a world that smelled like death, but we don't have to keep smelling like the world we came out of.

WE WERE DEAD, BUT NOW WE ARE ALIVE!

WE WERE CORRUPTED, BUT NOW WE ARE CLEANSED!

WE CARRIED THE STENCH OF SIN, BUT NOW WE CARRY THE FRAGRANCE OF CHRIST!

And that is what happens when Jesus gets ahold of a life.

SIN HAS A STENCH, BUT GRACE HAS A FRAGRANCE!

— Pst. JK Woodall