Victory Through Thanksgiving

“But thanks be to God, Who in Christ always leads us in triumph and through us spreads and makes evident the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere.” (1 Corinthians 2:14 AMP)
Our thanks is to be given to God. When we say that we are thankful, who are we thankful to? What are we thankful for? The above verse tells us that we are thankful to God because He always leads us in triumph.

Our lives are on display. There is a fragrance that surrounds us; an aroma that is only produced by an intimate, all-consuming relationship with God. A relationship that is only possible “in Christ.”  How does that relationship become evident to the spectators of our lives? Through our sacrifices of thanksgiving. (Psalms 50:14)

For we are the sweet fragrance of Christ [which exhales] unto God, [discernible alike] among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing: To the latter it is an aroma [wafted] from death to death [a fatal odor, the smell of doom]; to the former it is an aroma from life to life [a vital fragrance, living and fresh]. … (2 Corinthians 2: 15-16 AMP)

The Greek word for thanks in the Scripture above is charis, which comes from the root: chairo. Although the word is rendered thanks in this verse, the core idea is favor; grace (extension towards). How do we give God favor or grace? We do that by leaning in towards Him, or extending ourselves toward Him. We display that He is the favored One in our lives. He is our joy, our pleasure, our delight. We sacrifice the desires of our old man for approval, applause, position, and instead, proclaim His honor, His worth, and His glory through our thanksgiving.
God, “In Christ,” leads us in triumph. He makes a public display, a victory procession of our lives as one who has been conquered by the Conqueror. (1 Corinthians 15:57) We acknowledge our thanks to Him, and He is the One exalted. We surrender our lives to Him in gratefulness, and He is the One lifted up and on display. His beauty is seen. His fragrance fills the atmosphere. The Person of Christ, Who is made evident through our offerings of Thanksgiving, is seen and smelled by others.

That sweet aroma ascends to God. For those who smell the fragrance of Christ permeating from our sacrificed life of thanksgiving, there will either be a fragrance of Life or a fragrance of death. But an aroma will be released into the atmosphere.

Jesus rode into Jerusalem one day, not on a king’s horse, but on a lowly donkey. Not as One who has conquered, but one who had been conquered…or so it seemed. Shouts of hosanna rose into the skys. To some, it was a sweet aroma of life. To others, it carried a stench of death. Later, He led a procession carrying a cross. Some wept; while others mocked. It did not appear to be a display of victory. Three days later, the story changed.

“When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities (those supernatural forces of evil operating against us), he made a public example of them (exhibiting them as captives in His triumphal procession), having triumphed over them through the cross.” (Colossians 2:15 Amp.)
I want you to picture this procession. There was One being honored. One dressed in a King’s garments. One being exalted and hailed as favored. One Who became the Victor. He led the enemy through the streets disarmed and defeated.  When we offer our sacrifices of thanksgiving, Christ is exalted and the enemy is revealed as he truly is; defeated. An aroma is released as we display Jesus through every street of our lives proclaiming Him the Victor.