By Nathan Hodgdon
When people ask to hear my testimony, the first thing I say is that God has redeemed my life from the pit through Jesus Christ’s victory over sin and death. The reason for this is because church tradition often focuses on the details of one’s life when the point of a testimony really is to focus on Jesus Christ. My testimony, by definition, is not about me but about Him. Sure, I may offer details when they are profitable and edifying, but such is the nature of my life’s story that many details are generally unhelpful. If my testimony becomes about me and my struggles and my victories, then it’s no longer a testimony of the Gospel but an autobiography of my own life.
Revelation 12:11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.
Typically verse 11 is translated to say “overcame” rather than “conquered,” but therein lies the fascinating truth of the message: whether you read “overcome” or “conquer,” it’s the same Greek word — Nikē. When Jesus claimed to have overcome the world in John 16:33, He literally said, “I have nikēd the world.”
Nikē is a word of victory. What’s very interesting about the word of our testimony is that it was linked to our personal victory condition in imitation of Christ’s own victory condition. At the beginning of Revelation, chapter one, verse 5, our Lord is described as “Jesus Christ the faithful witness.” What might blow many people away is to realize that the word for witness is where we get the word for martyr–the word μάρτυς or martys in English letters. Jesus overcame/nikēd the world by being a faithful martyr. What’s most interesting about that is He made that claim before He died on the cross of Calvary.
The simple truth is that the physical experience of death is not required in order to be a martyr. Faithful witnessing of the Father and His Son by empowerment of His Spirit is. Being faithful unto death is the victory condition for every saint to overcome/conquer/nikē the world just as Jesus did. The word for testimony in Revelation 12:11 is related to exactly that–martyrias in the Greek. If that looks similar to the word from which we get “martyr,” that’s because it is.
Since testimony is martyrias, one could go so far as to say that the word of your testimony is the word of your martyrdom. You may not be called to physically die at the hand of violent persecution, but we are all called to forsake our own lives which becomes the word of our testimony: we beheld the blood of the Lamb of God, the true and faithful witness, and we became witnesses ourselves without regard for the lives we lived up to the point we encountered that truth. Everything else about discipleship, sanctification, and glorification follows from the simple foundation of standing up and being a witness of the Gospel of the Kingdom.
It is for this reason that Christ has called us to take up our crosses and follow Him–not as a metaphor for death, but a metaphor for faithful witnessing of the Kingdom of God no matter the cost. That is martyrdom. That is the word of our testimony. That is our accounting unto the blood of the Lamb. That is our victory condition set forth by Jesus who is named the Lion of Judah but is seen as the Lamb of God that was slain (Revelation 5:5-6). Just as He triumphed/nikēd in martyrdom, so do we.
Do you feel weak in your testimony? Is there doubt in the faithfulness of your witness? Has defeat cast doubt upon your odds of enduring to the end?
Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [martyrs], let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
In the end, our testimony is not about us. Our testimony/martyrdom is all about the Lord Jesus Christ, just as accusers gave false testimony (pseudomartureó) against Him in the Gospel accounts. Keep focused upon Him (“the blood of the Lamb”), yield anything and everything that revolts against His sacrifice (“the word of your martyrdom”), and you will endure until the end just as He did (“love not your life even unto death”). Our testimonies really are all about Him.
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I think Nathan’s explanation of ‘testimony’ fits perfectly with the TC2 life.