Right now I'm reading through Leviticus preparing to write twenty pages about it. Yes, twenty pages on Leviticus. But don't discount this exercise - there's already life-changing application.

The first several chapters of Leviticus are specific instructions on how to do certain sacrifices. You bring this certain animal to the priest, he does specific things to it, it is burned in a certain way on the altar. But each section ends with the statement: "It is a pleasing aroma to the Lord." Over and over again, everything is described and done in such a way as to produce this nice smell for God.

So then we leave Leviticus and its ancient ways and old customs, casting it aside for a new system and a new way of approaching God. But do we? The ancients brought their cattle, their birds, and their grain to the altar for sacrifice. This was the atonement act before God of the Israelites. We progress through time from there, slowly building a crescendo of God's work into the mighty, triumphal climax of Jesus breathing his last on the cross. The world fell into darkness at that moment. The ground shook. And we suddenly cut back in time to a close up of the dark, burned flesh on the altar. What's left? Not much except the lingering aroma of what used to be there.

But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? 2 Corinthians 2:14-16

Am I being the lingering aroma of Christ's sacrifice in this world?