“I will accept you as a sweet aroma” (Ezekiel 20:41)

The Father accepted the sweet aroma of the perfect life and perfect sacrifice of His Son. Every moment He was away from Heaven was necessary. Christ had to be “in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15), in order to offer “Himself without spot to God” (Hebrews 9:11), and by doing this, “He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). The sweet fragrance was produced equally from His passive and active righteousness so that we could be made acceptable to God. 

 The passive righteousness of His substitutionary sufferings: There was a sweet-smelling savor in His passive life as 100% man. He endured without complaint, hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness, and toward the end, He sweat blood in the garden of Gethsemane. He gave His back to be whipped, His scalp to be torn, His beard to be plucked, and His hands and feet to be nailed, that He might suffer the wrath of God in our behalf. 

 The active righteousness of His perfect life: There was also a sweet-smelling savor in His active life as 100% man. He kept every jot and tittle of the Law perfectly. He never did anything unless His Father told Him to do it and never said anything unless His Father told Him to say it. He was the only man who ever lived who obeyed perfectly “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). 

 Christ, the second Adam, could not have been the perfect sacrifice unless He first lived a perfect life to undo the curse of the first Adam. Dear saint, you can be sure of your acceptance with God because of what Christ did. When God looks at you, He sees the righteousness of Christ.