The Church's Greatest Martyr
Bernie L. Gillespie
© November 15, 1998 All Rights Reserved

I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness (martureon) is the Father, who sent me. (NIV John 8:18)

Does God Want You to Be a Martyr?

Do you think God wants you to be a martyr? YES & NO. It depends on what you understand by Martyr: Do you think that God wants you to suffer, punish yourself, and work yourself to death in order to please Him?  Then the answer is no. We cannot please God with any amount of our merit.

Do you mean by martyr a believer of the Gospel of Christ who will do all that is necessary at any cost to witness to the Gospel? The answer is YES. We are all called to be witnesses of Christ. Too often we have the wrong idea of what it means to be a martyr.

Martyr Complex

There are times when Christians are going through great difficulty and struggle because of their faith. We find ourselves opposed at many turns because what we believe is so foreign and even opposing to the mainstream. It seems that we have a harder way to go to be a Christian than the average person.

We can develop a martyr's complex. What is a martyr's complex? It is the attitude that we are doing so much and giving up so much for the Kingdom of God. It assumes that because we are paying such a great price to be a Christian that God and others owe us something.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses (martus) in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (NIV Acts 1:8)

Witnesses are Martyrs

The Scriptures tells us that the early Christians were witnesses to the Gospel. The Gospel is the truth about what God has done by Jesus Christ to save us.

God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses (martures) of the fact. (NIV Acts 2:32)

You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses (martures) of this. (Acts 3:15)

We are witnesses (martures) of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, (NIV Acts 10:39)

He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses (martursin) whom God had already chosen-- by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. (NIV Acts 10:41)

There are times when commitment to truth and the Gospel can dearly cost us many things. The Scriptures tell us that many of the witnesses to the Truth suffered, even to the point of death.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses (martureon), let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (NIV Hebrews 12:1)

They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated (NIV Hebrews 11:37)

I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony (martureon) to Jesus. When I saw her, I was greatly astonished. (NIV Revelation 17:6)

Persecution was a steady diet for many Christians through the centuries. As believers we expect it, and by faith in Christ, we triumph over it.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? (NIV Romans 8:35)

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. (NIV Romans 12:14)

We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; (NIV 1 Corinthians 4:12)

persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. (NIV 2 Corinthians 4:9)

That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (NIV 2 Corinthians 12:10)

In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted. And it turned out that way, as you well know. (NIV 1 Thessalonians 3:4)

Therefore, brothers, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith. (NIV 1 Thessalonians 3:7)

Therefore, among God's churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. (NIV 2 Thessalonians 1:4)

persecutions, sufferings-- what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. (NIV 2 Timothy 3:11)

In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, (NIV 2 Timothy 3:12)

Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. (NIV Hebrews 10:33)

Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. (NIV Revelation 2:10)

The Greatest Martyr

Jesus was the True Witness.

I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me. (martureon) (NIV John 8:18)

The word witness here means martyr. He gave His entire being to tell and show to the world the great work that his Father is doing. In that showing He suffered at the hands of evil men and spiritual forces. He was persecuted for the truth because darkness hates light.

All the blood of all the martyrs in the whole Bible and in Church history cannot redeem one micrometer of a single person's soul. The only Martyr who brings salvation was and is Jesus Christ.

Neither is their salvation in any other, for there is none other Name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Acts 4:12

Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. Heb. 9:27-28

Christ's suffering was pleasing to God. It merited favor and salvation. That merit is shared with us by our Lord when we embrace him by faith.

Martyrs Without a Martyr Complex

We are not to think of ourselves as great martyrs for God. Jesus has already suffered in our place. The burden and curse of trying to please God and impress others has been satisfied in Him. People are not our righteousness now. Jesus is our righteousness.

The true Great Martyr is Jesus Christ. We are to see ourselves as lights which burn ever and only for Jesus. The cost may be great and suffering and persecution will come. But we do it for our salvation, or glory. We do it because all the glory must be to the Lord.