And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony… Rev 12:11 (NKJV)
They overcame:
Many scholars say ’they’ are the church – followers of Jesus. ‘They’ are not one person: a hero, the elect, or the singled out, but ’THEY’ are together, community, family… ’They’ is all inclusive. We’re not here to race against each other and see who can be the best Christian. That’s not Christianity, that's just egocentric competitiveness. ‘They’ live alongside each-other, believe in one-another, pray and eat together, encourage, help…
In Rev 12, they overcame alongside one another. We are better together.
By the blood of the lamb:
From the days of Adam, God required the blood sacrifice of a spotless lamb to atone for the sins of a household/nation. Without getting into the details of sacrifice and covenant, Jesus’ blood sacrifice would be the last needed to cover our sin. His death and resurrection reconciled us with God once and for all. His perfect, sinless blood.
Your blood came from your parents, whose came from theirs and so on. Jesus was born of spirit and human, and His bloodline is a picture of His all-inclusive love. There are many decedents of Jesus, like Rahab, who were not Jewish, were not socially acceptable, outcast, foreign… but are there by grace as a picture that His blood would include and cover all.
And by the word of their testimony:
A testimony is someone's story or recount of an event. What's your story? Do you let your fears and failings tell your story? Or do you allow the author of life to pen His love within you telling a tale of grace and hope, learning, growing and overcoming. A story of faith.
We are stronger together. We are connected by faith in Jesus sacrifice and triumph. His blood was perfect not because it was singular, but because it represents the entirety of humanity past, present and future, connected with God. It flows through our spiritual veins rewriting our inherent self and prophesying our legacy. Because our story has been overlaid by Christ’s, our testimony inspires faith within ourselves and others.
Like we’ve been saying, you matter and your story matters. Go tell it.