grace, the same beautiful fragrance. But some die because they are not able to receive it.30 The gospel is for them, tragically, a fragrance unto death. On this latter point, there are persons whom Paul describes elsewhere as “vessels of wrath fitted31 to destruction” (Rom. 9:22 KJV). This might seem to suggest that “the vessels of wrath” were fitted beforehand by God to be such vessels. However, the larger context about “the vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory” (v. 23) excludes