Always Led in Triumph in Christ (2 Corinthians 2:14-17)

“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 2:14-17 NKJV)

Why did Apostle Paul say that Christians are always led in triumph in Christ? It’s because we are in Christ and He in us. Christ Jesus said to His disciples in the Upper Room Discourse that He was in the Father and the Father in Him. “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.” (John 17:20-21 NKJV) Christ was in total communion with the Father all the time except the time of suffering on the cross where God made Him sin in our place.

The relationship between the Father and Christ Jesus is exactly the same as the relationship between Christ and His followers who are born of God. We are in total communion with Christ Jesus. That’s way Paul says that Christians are always led in triumph in Christ by God. In the beginning man was made to operate and function in that relationship with God. But Adam fell and so the whole race was lost and away from the intimate relationship with the Father in heaven. That’s the reason God sent His begotten Son to demonstrate the life God intended it to be in the beginning.

Jesus never crossed the boundary of relationship with the Father. His eyes were fixed on the Father in heaven and He saw what the Father was doing and listened to what God was saying to Him. “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.” (John 5:19) That’s the confidence of Christ and ours in Christ. Being born of God, we are made anew in Christ and joined in the family of God. From the beginning, we are in Christ and He is in us by means of the Spirit. Being liberated from the bondage of the evil one, we became the captives of Christ Jesus, being possessed by Him eternally. We died to sin and were made alive to God, says Paul.

That’s where we Christians stand in Christ now and forever. No matter what happens or what circumstance is, our relationship with God and Christ Jesus as sons cannot alter a bit, ever.  That’s why we are always led in triumph in Christ because we are the fragrance of Christ right where God has put us.

“For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.” (Matthew 13:12)