The Christ Centred Cosmic Civilisation
Rod Dreher wrote “to order the world rightly as Christians requires regarding all things as pointing to Christ”
Christ is the One in Whom in all things consist and humanity is not the measure of all things. If a defining characteristic of the modern world is disorder then the most fundamental act of resistance is to discover and life according to the deep, divine order of the heavens and the earth.
In this series we want to look at the big model of the universe that the Bible and Christian history provides.
It is a mind and heart expanding vision of reality.
It is not confined to the limits of our bodily senses - but tries to embrace levels fo reality that are not normally accessible or tangible to our exiled life on earth.
We live on this side of the cosmic curtain - and therefore the highest and greatest dimensions of reality are hidden to us… yet these dimensions exist and are the most fundamental framework for the whole of the heavens and the earth.
Throughout this series we want to pick away at all the threads of reality to see how they all join together - how they all find common meaning and reason in the great divine logic - the One who is the Logos, the LORD Jesus Christ - the greatest that both heaven and earth has to offer.
Colossians 1:15-23
The Christ Centred Cosmic Civilisation
Episode 112 - The Divine Breath: Exploring the Theology of Nose and Nostrils
Have you ever considered that your nose might be the most theologically significant part of your body? Tucked away in Genesis 2:7 is a profound revelation—the first human body part specifically mentioned in scripture is the nose, as God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." This isn't coincidental but foundational to understanding our relationship with our Creator.
The humble nose serves as more than just a facial feature we often feel insecure about. It functions as the gateway through which life itself entered humanity and continues to sustain us moment by moment. Each breath we take demonstrates our complete dependence on something outside ourselves—a powerful physical reminder of our spiritual dependence on God's sustaining presence.
This episode explores fascinating connections between breathing, smelling, and spiritual realities. We discover that the Hebrew word for anger literally means "nose," giving us a visceral understanding of divine wrath as flared nostrils and heavy breathing rather than mere abstract disapproval. This makes the sacrificial system's "soothing aroma" profoundly meaningful—the smoke of atonement enters God's nostrils and calms His righteous anger. When Jesus "breathed on them" to give the disciples the Holy Spirit, He was deliberately echoing the Genesis creation narrative, showing that the same God who formed us continues to transform us.
Our sense of smell's powerful connection to memory and emotion explains why fragrance plays such an important role in scripture, from Mary's expensive perfume poured on Jesus' feet to Paul's description of believers as "the aroma of Christ." Your life, lived in sacrifice and obedience, generates a spiritual fragrance that reflects Christ's own sacrifice—pleasing to God though perhaps offensive to a world that rejects salvation.
Join us as we breathe deeply of these theological insights and discover how something as simple as our nose reveals profound truths about receiving and reflecting divine life. What spiritual aroma is your life producing today?
The theme music is "Wager with Angels" by Nathan Moore
Well, welcome to the next episode of the Christ-Centered Cosmic Civilization. And we're continuing to look at the theology of the human body. And we're looking at our head and we're now going to think about the nose and nostrils. The nose and nostrils Now nose.
Speaker 1:People get extremely bothered about their nose. It's the body part that I find that people get most discontented with. People often feel that their profile is not what they want it to be and it's hard to reassure them that what they imagine is a problem isn't a problem at all. But our noses are actually just mainly used for breathing and smelling. It's not really primarily about our appearance. Babies only breathe through their noses. In fact, if you only breathe through your mouth, you'll get a sore throat because we're designed to breathe through our mouth. You'll get a sore throat because we're designed to breathe through our noses.
Speaker 1:But our noses are actually connected to this much bigger system which are sinuses, and that the sinuses. That system is much larger than we realize. Sometimes a person might think, oh, like they've got pain, that's like headaches and all around their head, and they don't realize that that is all connected to their nose and nostrils and the sinuses A surprising amount of space in our head, around our eyes and above our mouth and all this area. All of that is part of this system that's really connected with our breathing and smelling and it's our sinuses smelling and it's our sinuses and sinus trouble is much more common than perhaps we realize. Some of us are very aware of it and maybe take medication, and it's partly to do with living in environments where there are a lot of irritants in the air, particles and also the dryness of breathing air that is indoors or subject to central heating, so that you've got this warm, dry air that's constantly being circulated and drying out and irritating our sinuses. And then that leads to bigger questions about whole lifestyle issues about pollutants and being indoors rather than outdoors. All of that is of theological importance and is interesting, but we may not realise the importance of our noses and the movement of air and smells around our heads, around us, and how important smell is and how subtle and powerful our sense of smell is and that we detect. Sometimes we assume, oh well, animals are much better at smelling than us, like dogs and things, but in truth our ability to smell is very, very sophisticated and can and we can detect very small and slight changes in aroma. But let's go back to the beginning, right back to how we were created now, when we were.
Speaker 1:Let's just read Genesis 2, verse 7. It says the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Now, notice then that he doesn't do mouth to mouth resuscitation. Well, it's not resuscitating. It'd be giving him life for the first time, but he doesn't do it as mouth to mouth. It's more like nostril to nostril. The Lord God breathed into Adam's nostrils. Life came into humanity through our nostrils, and that's automatically. Like.
Speaker 1:The first body part that is mentioned of human beings is the nose, the nostrils. That's the very first body part that is isolated and spoken about. When we breathe, the oxygen goes into our lungs and then via our. So this flow of life-giving air comes in through the nostrils, filtered through the sinus system down into our lungs, and then, through the lungs, use it. Well, we'll come to the lungs, perhaps in a later program, but that oxygen is attached to our blood, and then that brings life to every part of our body. So that's this, that way in which life comes in through the nostrils and then is distributed out to the whole body. It's very literally true. We are completely reliant on air outside of ourselves and we constantly have to bring in life from outside into ourselves to live, and the nostrils are the vehicle of this intake, constant process of intake. There's also exhaling, and we will. We may refer to that shortly, the way that there's an x? Um, an expelling of what we don't need now.
Speaker 1:The spirit, the holy spirit, in the bible is described as that breath of God is given to all who trust the spirit-filled son, jesus. But that that notion then of the breath of God and that he gives his breath to us, his breath to us John 20, verse 22,. Jesus breathed on them and said receive the Holy Spirit. So John 3, 34 tells us that Jesus was filled with the Spirit, limitlessly, without measure, an unlimited amount of this breath of God in him, and then he breathes out that spirit onto all his people. He shares his breath with us and and again, just with that image of where we, if there's a person who is unable to get breath, and then we, uh, that like, have first aid techniques and there's, and we, we, we might learn how to give our breath to somebody who cannot get their breath to sustain, to keep them alive. And then they the idea is that they'll be able to breathe independently, but for a while we, you, can learn how to give your breath to someone else to keep them alive. And that is a powerful image to have in mind, partly with the genesis 2 7 in mind, that that's kind of what the living god does originally for us, but also the way jesus repeats that action in john 2022. He breathed on them and said receive the holy spirit.
Speaker 1:This image of giving us life to keep us alive or to share his breath with us in, here's another amazing one um, in lamentations 4, verse 20, jesus, the messiah, the christ, is described as the breath of our nostrils. So it's like he himself. Is this life-giving breath, our very breath? Lamentations 420. It says the breath of our nostrils, the lord's anointed, or that's in the esv. The niv just says the lord's anointed, our very life breath. It's that strong sense that we, when we can't breathe without, without the messiah, we live and move in earth, earth that constantly givesearth it could be, and the sort of vacuum of space or air and water if we pass through a barrier where air ends, that's we can't live anymore in such an environment. We have to then take the air with us. That barrier, the limits of the environment, of air, is effectively the limits of our living space, teaching us that we live and move in the Spirit of God, who constantly gives life to us through Jesus.
Speaker 1:Well, let's think can we really survive without our breath? How long can we hold our breath? Children sometimes try to stay underwater as long as they can in the swim pool. Well, not just children, I've seen adults doing it as well, but it never lasts very long. We cannot last without our breath.
Speaker 1:And when we cannot breathe, well, at first it doesn't matter for a few seconds, but then there's discomfort, difficulty, we become distressed. Then we might start to feel panicked, full of panic. Then our vision will start to fail. All of this is interesting that when we do not have the breath of life within us, we don't notice it immediately for a relatively short time, but the symptoms of not having breath within us escalate quite quickly and that sense of anxiety really escalates, grows very quickly, but also the fact that our vision will fail. We cannot see, and so if we try to exist without the life of God, the breath of God, we may be okay for a very short time, but quickly the symptoms escalate and the rising anxiety and stress, but also the darkness, the inability to see, to think clearly. Job in Job 27, verse 3, he says he says, as long as I have, life is having the breath of God within you. There's many verses like that in the Bible and the very strong tying up of being alive, of being alive and having the spirit of God. Life without the spirit Isn't really life at all.
Speaker 1:Now, our nose is also heavily involved in smelling and that's in many ways how we're most aware of our nose. The smell of something can have an instant effect on our emotions. Studies show that smell is most closely attached to our memory and oh we, I'm sure even now as I'm speaking, you might recall moments where just the fleeting scent of something can transport us to a time, a place long ago. Sometimes we can't even isolate were or what we're trying to remember, but the smell somehow has this nostalgic or even like a deja vu or some sort of effect upon us. That is strange and studies do show this, this attachment to memory. We can remember, sometimes very clearly, something from many years ago simply through a particular smell, the smell of real Christmas trees, burning wood, roasting coffee, beans, citrus fruit, sea salt, soft leather, new books, bacon sandwiches, fresh cut grass, fresh cut flowers, flowers these they're all the kind of aromas that create good feelings. Then people in surveys list these kind of aromas and to what they like to smell, what makes them feel good, and and there's other ones that are very localized so that other people might not particularly like that smell or it doesn't mean anything to them. But because it was a particular smell of where we grew up or where we lived for a while, it has a powerful good feeling.
Speaker 1:Proverbs 27, verse 9, says perfume and incense bring joy to the heart. And in john 12, verse 3, mary took a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume. She poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. Anybody who'd been in that house when Mary poured the perfume over Jesus would have remembered that smell for decades, would have remembered that smell for decades and the special devotion of Mary. Fragrances we'll come back to those, I think, uh, later. And well, there's a. We'll come back to the, to fragrances and the cost of them and the quality of them. Um, let's just deal with something basic, because our nose is such a powerful channel into our feelings, our memories, our emotions, so we put effort and expense into managing the smells around us and expense into managing the smells around us.
Speaker 1:We often try to mask smells that we don't like. People maybe in the toilet have air fresheners and sprays, or near to their bins you can get bin liners that are scented, that mask and attempt to cover up the smell of the the bin, because there's a kind of decay, a smell of decay and even death-like smell around bins. We use deodorants to mask the natural smells that our body produces, but, on the other hand, we will use perfumes and scented oils to enhance and show off our beauty. Aftershave, colognes for men and women are quite actually basic toiletries for us, and some of us may have quite a few of them and and we might invest a comparatively large amount of money in colognes, uh, um, when I I remember going into a, uh, a sort of perfume shop and having, um, the owner spend about half an hour very kindly kind of explaining so much about the industry and how sense are created and the cost of them and the relative cost and what and um, how partly the cost is to do not so much with the cost of production but with the perceived value and all of that. But people will pay a great deal of money to get the scent they most desire and people then can stick with one fragrance for many, many years, decades, their whole life, because it's become so important to their identity.
Speaker 1:We have two nostrils and we've it is always to do with that deeper perception, and so the two nostrils reminds us to see beyond the apparent good smell and think again. Things may have a good smell but actually be very bad for us. We could think about how we might enjoy a cigar, and is it bad for us, perhaps, but the smell? We might enjoy the smell, and there's a lot of things that are like that. But even just the way that food manufacturers that maybe are producing very unhealthy food bother to try and make them smell in a very attractive way to draw us in to eating it and buying the products.
Speaker 1:Proverbs 7 describes how the seductress used this perfume to attract, but quote her house is a highway to the grave leading down to the chambers of death. So there it's again, this warning that smell can draw us into things that are bad for us, can draw us into things that are bad for us. And that smell does have this very powerful effect upon our um, to what we're attracted to, like the eyes. This is a matter of judgment, of discernment. We smell things to test them, to see if they are full of life or full of death. But again we're being warned be careful, discern smell. Again. I mean, we all know we'll smell, say, milk to see if it's fresh or going off.
Speaker 1:When we get meat, no matter what the sell by date says or the use by date says, if it smells rotten we shouldn't eat it. And we wouldn't we'd be like, oh, I'm not eating that, that smells terrible. So our nose gives us this warning the smell of decay and death makes us feel disgusted and even angry. If, if someone is giving us something to eat or trying to have us engage with something and it smells really disgusting or even dangerous, like decayed, we'd be angry. It'd be a repulsive like oh, get that away from me, I'm angry that it's even being offered to me. And when we feel like that, our nostrils flare and our faces show our reaction. And the reaction is very concentrated around our nose and our nostril. And that's important because the bible uses the word for nose to describe anger, because when we are angry our nostrils flare out and we may snort or sniff with indignation, and there's a strong image implied in the phrase, an aroma soothing to the Lord.
Speaker 1:The typical word for anger is the Hebrew word af. Now, in the burnt offering, the animal was entirely consumed by fire to make atonement, and in its being burned the smoke is produced that produces the aroma of this fiery atonement. It is as if the animal goes into the fire and pays the price of the sin. The animal carries the shame, the guilt, the uncleanness on behalf of the person who lays their hand on it, and the animal is consumed by this fire, this well representation of the fiery barrier between heaven and earth. And so it's like the animal is making a safe pathway through this fiery barrier. The animal dies in the place of the sinner, in this fire of divine judgment and exclusion. Divine judgment and exclusion. So in English the word anger is an abstract idea, but in Hebrew the word literally just means nose because, as we thought, when somebody is very angry we see their nostrils flare open and we can be aware of the loud breathing through their flared nose. So when the Hebrew scriptures speak of the anger of God, typically it reads as a very intimidating vision of this genuine, passionate anger of the living God, rather than a kind of legal disapproval.
Speaker 1:Quite often when people describe God's anger, they're trying to reduce it to or convert it into something abstract and dispassionate. I remember someone trying to say when the Bible talks about God's anger, what it's trying to say is this is God's negative policy, it's his policy towards things that he's like. I have a policy against certain things. So in doing that, they've totally removed what it really is like, what, what that image really is like to. If it's talking about this nose with flared nostrils, the breathing, the snorting, all of that, and then to turn that into an entirely alien framework of, of, of meaning, that is um, merely a policy, not even personal anymore. That's really wrong to do. That. It's creating an entirely alien picture, and so it's rather that, to be faithful to the Bible, rather than talking about policies, it's more accurate to, when we read passages like that, to genuinely imagine a man full of anger coming towards us with nostrils flared and breathing heavily, and to kind of feel the intimidation of that and the danger of that and why that is something that is fearsome, frightening.
Speaker 1:It is powerful to the Hebrew mind to know, then that an atonement and this is going back to the burnt offering idea See, if there's this idea that there's an aroma produced, if there's this idea that there's an aroma produced, smoke goes up and then the Bible says that the smoke of atonement goes into the nostrils of the Lord and that when he breathes it in, it soothes him. It is a soothing aroma to the Lord. So that nose that is flared in anger, breathing, heavily, inhales this aroma produced by the atoning sacrifice, and then there's a soothing effect, there's a calming effect, and we should take that quite literally. And we should take that quite literally and instead of just trying to immediately put that into some bizarre psychological or legal language, we allow it to have its own integrity and that it means kind of what it says. Think of these words from Psalm 18.
Speaker 1:In my distress, I called to the Lord, I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice. My cry came before him into his ears. The earth trembled and quaked. The foundations of the mountains shook. They trembled because he was angry. Smoke rose from his nostrils, cons. Fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it. Well, that is a terrifying image of the living God.
Speaker 1:If such a divine being were coming to vent his fury against us, it would be extremely wonderful to know that there was an atoning sacrifice, the smoke of which produced an aroma soothing to the lord. And um, if we were trying to cover our shame or hide our uncleanness in the presence of such anger, such disgust against the decay, the moral, spiritual, shameful decay that's around us, it would be incredible to find out that it is possible to soothe that anger against us. It's possible to soothe that anger against us. Yeah, look, the other sacrifices and offerings describe more about how the uncleanness can be washed away. But to know that our shame, guilt, filth, decay is covered over, if we will.
Speaker 1:We've thought about how we can use a pleasant smell to mask a bad smell. We could think of it in that way, but that the divine anger is soothed. It's hugely powerful and we in the western world, who have become very accustomed to impersonal, abstract, legal language, that we might think. Oh, it's hard to think of God in very practical, down-to-earth terms because we may be used to a long tradition of thinking of God as essentially just a series of policies and abstractions. But if we really do get into that strange world of the Bible and take it seriously, these images become very, very powerful and much more grounded, much more believable.
Speaker 1:Over and over again we're told that when the Lord smelled this atoning sacrifice of death which pointed to the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, this soothed him. It's as if the smelling of the burnt offering and this aroma, that asc of the past, whereas in the living god it seems to um evoke a memory of the future. This in this sense in which the lamb is slain before the foundation of the world and there's this way in which the reality of the cross and the death of Jesus, which is the center point of the entire universe, and that is it kind of in the past, when that, when these offerings were done, from like 1500 BC through, they created a memory of that future. Jesus death expresses and brings peace to the divine anger. So even in advance of it, um, there is this soothing.
Speaker 1:All those animal sacrifices of the Old Testament created an aroma pleasing or soothing to the living God. Genesis 8, verses 20 to 21,. Noah built an altar to the Lord and taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds he sacrificed, burnt offerings on it. The Lord smelled the pleasing, soothing aroma In the aftermath of the judgment, of the flood. Looking ahead, there's this soothing, the sense of things are able to be put right, to be made clean, that decay can be done away with, rot can be disposed of and the stench of moral rot, the shame, all of that can be done away with and there can be a clean future, a righteous future, good, good can triumph, triumph.
Speaker 1:All of this has this soothing effect. So the aroma of jesus death is very pleasing to the living god and and we can, we'll conclude with this so is the aroma of his church living the way of Jesus in terms of sacrifice and obedience, so that as we live out that way of the cross, there is an aroma kind of generated by that for the living God. The world hates that aroma of sacrifice and holiness, so to them this good smell smells terrible, and we'll just end with this 2 Corinthians, 2, 14 to 15. Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him, for we are, to God, the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved. Aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. No-transcript.