“And they
overcame him because the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their
testimony, and they did not love their life even unto death.” Revelation 12:11.
As I continue to
ponder elements of our personal testimony, I keep thinking of Polycarp, who was
martyred around 160 A.D. Here is an excerpt of The Martyrdom of Polycarp:
…the proconsul
asked if he were Polycarp. And when he confessed that he was, the proconsul
tried to persuade him to recant, saying, “Consider your age,” and other things
such as they are accustomed to say: “Swear by the Guardian Spirit of Caesar;
repent; say, ‘Away with the atheists!’ [Christians were considered
atheists] … Swear the oath, and I will release you, revile Christ,” Polycarp
replied, “For eighty-six years I have been his servant,
and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?”
I don’t recall
when I first read Polycarp’s response to the proconsul (and there is more to
this interchange, I hope you will read it), but I have never forgotten those
words, “For eighty-six years I have been his servant, and he has done me no
wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?”
What spoke to me
decades ago, and what continues to speak to me, is a life of faithful
friendship between Polycarp and Christ, for while Polycarp styles the
relationship as that between King and servant (for the context of standing
against imperial Rome demands that Polycarp be perfectly clear as to who is the
True King), the words “and he has done me no wrong” contain the sense of
“he has always been good to me, merciful, kind, and trustworthy.” You see, a
personal testimony is about more than an “event,” it is about the faithfulness
of Jesus Christ in relationship.
When Paul stood
before various tribunals after his arrest in Jerusalem, he did indeed testify
about the event he experienced on the road to Damascus, but he did that to lay
a foundation for his extended testimony about Jesus Christ. Putting this
another way, considering the Parable of the Sower, would it make any sense for
the seed which grew up on shallow soil to testify about sprouting up when the
final result was that it fell away when persecution came because of the Word? Would
it make any sense for the seed which was choked by the cares of the world and
the deceitfulness of riches to testify about an initial event when it was not
bearing fruit?
I love sharing about
how I was drawn to Jesus Christ by His grace, and I love hearing others tell
how they came to know Jesus – there is a special joy when I hear about the Good
Shepherd bringing one of His own into the fold, and for sure there is joy in
heaven. I am not denigrating “personal testimonies,” what I’m trying to
do is to get us to think about them in a Biblical context, a context that insists
on ongoing obedience, discipleship, and deepening relationship.
Is it possible
that we do people a disservice when we present a “one and done” Gospel? When we
teach that all you need to do is to walk down the aisle and shake my hand and
profess Christ and you then have a testimony and your ticket to heaven is
punched? This does not seem to be Jesus’ approach in Mark 8:34ff. This is not
the material for an overcoming life, and let’s not forget that we are
considering a passage in Revelation, the context of which is warfare and
persecution.
I came to initially
know Jesus Christ over a period of months, I know others who initially came to
know Jesus at a fixed point in time and space. Whatever the case may be, we
want to encourage others in Christ, whether they are in the process of coming
to initially know Him or have experienced an “event” in which they met Him – we
want to encourage the laying of a firm foundation and to encourage Biblical
construction on that foundation. Let’s not forget that many disciples of Jesus
turned away from Him during His earthly ministry (John 6:66).
Polycarp’s
testimony was about Jesus and His goodness. It is well and good that I share
about how my life changed in coming to know Christ – but the essence of what I testify
to must be Jesus Christ. We are told that we are to share our personal
experience, our “testimony,” because people can’t argue with our experience. But
if that is all we share then we fall short of testifying to Jesus Christ, because
we want to point to Jesus and not ourselves…and let’s be clear about this, if
we point others to Jesus they WILL have something to argue about, they WILL
have a decision to make about the Person of Jesus Christ. Can we really say
that we have testified to Jesus Christ if people never have to make a choice?
Let’s make no
mistake about this, when we come to know Jesus Christ our lives will change,
and they should keep changing. Nicodemus was told that we must be born again
from above (John 3:1 – 21); Paul tells us that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a
new creature; the old things passed away, new things have come” (2 Cor. 5:17); Peter writes that we have been “born again,
not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living
and enduring word of God” (1 Peter 1:23); James teaches that, “in the exercise
of His will He brought us forth by the world of truth, so that we would be the
first fruits among His creatures” (James 1:18); John writes, “By this we know
that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit” (1
John 4:13).
Coming into a
relationship with Jesus Christ is an experience that we ought to talk about, to
give witness to – after all, it is the most critical thing that has happened,
or will ever happen, to us. Living in a relationship with Jesus Christ is
something that we ought to also talk about as a matter of course, it ought to
be as natural as breathing. Jesus Christ ought to be our Way of Life (John 14:6;
15:4 – 5).
We live in an
increasingly hostile world. In America our prosperous society is opposed to the
Gospel of Jesus Christ – forget the lip service given by political parties,
political and economic leaders, and other power brokers and people of worldly influence;
forget much of what passes for popular “Christian” leadership; we live in a
hostile world and there are enormous pressures against the true Church and the
faithful Bride. (How can we read Revelation Chapter 18 and not see the
values and activities of our own nation?)
Do not make the
mistake of thinking that the “mark of the beast” is futuristic, every
generation has seen varieties of this mark, and in our own generation people
accept this mark every day, even many who should know better within the
professing church rationalize their acceptance of it; as Paul writes, our
consciences are seared as with a hot branding iron (1 Timothy 4:2). Sadly, we
offer our children up to the beast at young ages, teaching them to reject the
image of God as a matter of education – and we salve our consciences by
thinking that we have to “go along” in order to survive.
I’m going to pick
this focus up in the next post.
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