"They overcame him because of the blood of the
Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony; and they loved not
their life even unto death" (Rev. 12:11).
"...John, who bare witness of the word of God, and of the testimony of
Jesus" (Rev. 1:2).
"I John... was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God
and the testimony of Jesus" (Rev. 1:9).
"When he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of
them that had been slain for the word of God, and for the testimony
which they held" (Rev. 6:9).
"And the dragon waxed wroth with the woman, and went away to make war
with the rest of her seed, that keep the commandments of God, and hold
the testimony of Jesus" (Rev. 12:17).
"I fell down before his feet to worship him. And he saith unto me, See
thou do it not: I am a fellow-servant with thee and with thy brethren
that hold the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of
Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (Rev. 19:10).
In our previous meditations we have been seeing that there are three
aspects to be noted in connection with the overcomer. One is a condition
or state, and another a position, and a third a testimony. The condition
or state is that of righteousness which is through faith in Jesus
Christ, the righteousness which is represented by the Blood, the
incorruptible life and nature of the Lord Jesus which is ours through
faith, a state essential to overcome the Evil One in all his forms and
works. A position results from the state, a heavenliness of life, and
from that a testimony. We come to this third aspect in our present
meditation.
The Overcomers Testimony
These are not three separate things, as we have
pointed out. Not one of them can be had without the others, but each
leads on to the other. That is to say, the state of righteousness by
faith, when rightly and adequately apprehended, results in a position, a
heavenly position spiritually, and the position leads to the testimony.
If you look at it in the reverse order, the testimony is essentially in
virtue of a position, and the position is in virtue of a condition. It
is very important to see fully in our hearts the significance of that.
The testimony of Jesus is not a statement of truth, not just a
declaration of facts, of certain truths about the Lord Jesus, His Person
and His work. It may be expressed in language, it may include those
facts, it may be something verbally declared, but the testimony of Jesus
is not merely that. It is not a formula, a confession of faith drafted
in words. The testimony of Jesus which provokes the great red dragon and
draws him out in every form of his activity as here set forth - the old
serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole
earth, the accuser of the brethren; representing the manifold activity
of the ferocious dragon in his antagonism - the testimony of Jesus which
provokes him and brings him into this posture and attitude in which we
see him in Rev. 12, I say again, is not a testimony of mere words. It is
nothing less than the very embodiment of all those facts in a living
spiritual way which registers with such tremendous effect as this in the
realm where Satan holds sway. It is the spiritual effectiveness of
things which determines whether it is the testimony of Jesus or whether
it is some mere statement of truth. The effect that it has upon the
enemy is always a fairly safe manner of judging whether it is the true
testimony or not. It is a case of the fact or the facts being an inward
reality in a person or in a company of the Lord's people. It is the
thing which is borne out: not the thing which they say, profess or
claim, but the thing which is borne out by their very existence. They
are that. This is the testimony of Jesus.
It is because that is so that, in those first
chapters of the book of the Revelation, where the victorious, living
Lord is challenging the churches concerning their testimony, many
commendable things which are mentioned are seen not to be adequate. In
some directions, there was no departure from the truth as a statement of
doctrine. There was no letting go of the confession of faith, there was
still a standing tenaciously to the facts about the Lord Jesus; yes, and
many other things quite commendable, and acknowledged as such by the
Lord, and yet bringing from His lips that word expressing His
dissatisfaction in view of what they stand for - But: "but I have this
against thee"; "but thou hast there..."; but! You see, the Lord Himself,
when He is taking into account the very object for which His Church
exists, can never be satisfied with the most orthodox and sound
statement of doctrine. What He is looking for is the effect of that in
the spiritual universe, the power of it as a registration in that realm.
It is that which is the testimony of Jesus.
The Nature of the Testimony of Jesus
Well then, we must come to see what this testimony of
Jesus is in its nature, that is, its effect. What is the nature of it?
What is the testimony of Jesus? Well, comprehensively, it is that Jesus
has vanquished Satan, Jesus has overcome the world, and Jesus has
destroyed the power of death. That is the testimony of Jesus
comprehensively. In His case, that is a fact. In His case, the prince of
this world has been cast out, and he that had the power of death has
been nullified, and the works of the Devil have been destroyed. In His
case, He has overcome the world.
Now the testimony of Jesus is not just a declaration of the facts
which are true in His case, but these lampstands on the earth, here and
there and there, are the vessels, the very embodiment of that in a
living way. That is why the lamp was never to be allowed to go out in
the sanctuary, but was to be trimmed night and morning that its flame
might be kept clear and triumphant. Therein is typified the embodiment
of those facts which are facts in Him, and their being livingly,
glowingly expressed here in the Church. That is the testimony, and there
is one word which embraces all that. You want to know what the
vanquishing of Satan is, the overcoming of the world, and the destroying
of death? There is one word which goes right to the heart of it, and it
is this, life. Life is the sum total of all Christ's being and of
His work. He is the life. He comes into the world as the life. He is the
offset in His very person to that condition which is universal, namely,
death, spiritual death. He is life. His presence is life. Everything
about the Lord Jesus now is life; there is no death in Him. In Him death
is swallowed up in its entirety. In His very person He is the fullness
of that life of God which has nothing in it whatsoever that can be
touched by death. His work is that. All the work of the Lord Jesus is
related to one thing, and one thing only, and that is life. In Him life
and incorruptibility have been brought to light - marvellous revelation
of a thought of God! Incorruptibility! What a world, what a universe it
will be, when that is the reigning law in everything, everywhere!
Incorruptibility! Think of it! Consider how easy it is to corrupt people
nowadays, and to corrupt things, and to corrupt procedure. Consider too
the result of it. But there is coming a world, a creation, a new heaven
and a new earth in which will dwell righteousness which is
incorruptible. Incorruptible life will be the reigning law of God's new
universe. That is the effect of Christ's work. It is life; just as the
sum of all Satan's being and work is death. The presence of Satan is
death. The very person of Satan is death. He is death. I do not
mean that he is an abstract thing, but he is the very embodiment and
personification of death and the effect of all his work is death. He has
brought in death. Everything that Satan touches dies. He carried with
him the very breath of death.
The testimony of Jesus, then, is this that is seen
right at the beginning of the book of the Revelation, where He is
presented as the Living One who became dead, but who is alive unto the
ages of the ages, and has the keys of death and of Hades. The testimony
of Jesus is the testimony of death swallowed up in victory, destroyed,
as the sum of all Satan's person and work, presence and influence.
Now, that is carrying things right to the ultimate,
to the end - the testimony of Jesus! And the overcomer is set for that
testimony. The Church was brought into being on the ground of that.
Always remember that it was when that had been perfectly accomplished in
Christ, and He was installed at the right hand of God as the
acknowledgment of the fact that all this was done in Him and through Him
and by Him; it was when He was there and the thing was perfect,
accomplished, that the Church began, the Church was born. The very life
of that new creation, in the person of the Holy Spirit, entered into the
Church and made it a living thing. The Church was born when the life
came right out from heaven, that life which had conquered death, and the
Church's very existence is by reason of the "testimony of Jesus". The
overcomer only comes into view when the Church as a whole has fallen
short. The overcomer comes in to make up that which is lacking, to
recover, to represent and express that which has been lost, to stand for
the fullest thought of God. The one thing which is to characterize the
overcomer, be it the overcomer individual or collective, is this testimony
which is expressed in life.
Now we see why it is important and essential that a
position should be occupied for a testimony like that. You have to have
a position to be able to express that. You have to be in the position of
spiritual ascendancy represented by Paul's word "heavenly", and, in
order to occupy that position, you have to be in that state or condition
represented by the value of the Blood, the incorruptible nature
of the Lord Jesus; and that, of course, through faith.
The Blood the Ground of Life
Now, the ground of all this is the Blood. "They overcame him because
of the blood of the Lamb." I am not going to take anything for granted
and I am going to run the risk of wearying you with repetition of things
so well-known. When we quote this passage, Rev. 12:11, "They overcame
him because of the blood of the Lamb", let us get our minds completely
free from the idea that this overcoming because of the Blood was a
matter of using phraseology; that is, that they took hold of the word
and began to hurl it in some objective way at the head of the enemy. I
know there are times when we must on our knees plead the virtue and
value of the Blood against the enemy; but that cannot be done in the
same way that a doctor will write out a prescription and apply it in
sort of a mechanical way to a certain diagnosed trouble. It cannot be
done like that. You have to be in a position for the Blood to be
effectual when you appeal to it, a spiritual position. You have to be
there in faith, where you in the first place stand utterly upon the
ground of His perfect righteousness by faith. That means that every
question, doubt, suggestion of being out of fellowship with God has to
go. Anything whatever that raises the slightest doubt about your full
fellowship with God will cripple you before the enemy. You and I have to
be able to take this position before God through faith - ever in faith,
knowing as much as we do about the vileness and iniquity of our own
hearts: nevertheless, to be able to take this position before God - that
even as Christ is there, so are we. His righteousness is the measure of
our righteousness. It is a tremendous position, and something that no
mortal would ever dare to assume were it not in the Word of God. That is
the foundation, and anything whatever upon our conscience which
interferes with that is a paralysing thing in the presence of the enemy.
We have to get that cleared up first of all on the ground of what the
Blood is for us before God, as speaking of an incorruptible life, and
equally of course anything upon which the Spirit Himself puts His finger
and says, Look here, that is something in which you persist, something
in which you act voluntarily of your own volition, and knowingly, which
is not according to the mind of God: you must put it away. Otherwise we
are defeated in the presence of the enemy and he has the advantage. It
is a condition through faith, and walking in the light, which brings us
to a position of ascendancy over the enemy, which is the only sure and
right ground of testimony, issuing in the testimony. The testimony has
that underneath it.
The Blood Effectual through the Cross
So do not let us think of using phrases at the enemy. It
is occupying a position which paralyses the enemy, an impregnable
position, and all that he can do is to walk round and round trying to
find some way in. The Blood is the ground of the testimony. "They
overcame him because of (and I think that translation is so much better
than "by") the blood of the Lamb." That translation just gets us that
much further on in understanding. It is not by using something in an
objective way, it is because of something in a subjective way;
because of the Blood of the Lamb. Well, you see, that means that the
Cross must have become an actuality. The Blood becomes released and
effectual by way of the Cross. I mean, that the Cross must have removed
all the ground of death for the testimony of the Blood in life to be
established. The ground of death is dealt with in the Cross. You see,
the specific significance of the Cross in this matter is that there we,
in all that we are by nature, have been taken and set aside. That is the
Cross. After that you have the living testimony of the Blood. It is
another nature; not the nature which has been put away in the Cross, but
another nature, His own nature, which goes on in glory - testimony.
After the sacrifice has been offered, the Blood is carried through into
the Most Holy Place to be an abidingly living testimony, and it is there
as witnessing to the fact that all that ground of death in the old
nature has been abolished, put away. This Blood in the presence of God
says, There is another nature which triumphs over that, triumphs over
death, over sin, over the flesh: and therefore over all the power of
Satan. That is the present testimony of the Blood.
The Cross, then, must have been appropriated by us. We
must have come to the place where we accept our union with Christ in His
death to all that is of nature; otherwise there is no living testimony.
Any attempt at testimony will be very soon countered by the enemy.
You remember the very familiar story of David, how in
his zeal and enthusiasm, and in true devotion to the Lord, he one day
called the elders of Israel and the people together, and said, If it
seem good to you... let us bring again the ark of our God to us. Yes, it
seems quite good; we agree! It is a good thing to do and we are quite
sure it will please the Lord. So they arranged the whole matter. They
had a cart made for the ark, and they got the ark and put it on their
new cart and started on their way with a great deal of enthusiasm and
zeal, sure that they were serving the Lord: and on the way the oxen
stumbled - for that sort of thing is sooner or later bound to
come up against difficulties - and Uzza put forth his hand to steady the
ark; and the anger of the Lord was kindled against him and he died there
before the Lord. David was grieved with the Lord that day and said, "How
shall I bring the ark of God home unto me?" And the ark was turned aside
into the house of Obed-edom and was there a long time. Then the next
chapter opens in an altogether new realm. David calls for the
sanctifying of the Levites and says, "None ought to carry the ark of God
but the Levites; for them hath the Lord chosen to carry the ark of
God..." Later in the chapter we read that David said, "Because (the
Levites) bare not the ark at the first, the Lord made a breach upon us,
for that we sought him not after the due order."
Well now; what do the Levites represent? Just the
opposite of what Uzza represents. What is Uzza doing? Well, Uzza is one
of the custodians of a nice little programme of work for the Lord. The
first thing is, We will have a conference and discuss how to do this
nice thing for the Lord! We have got our cart, our nice bit of
mechanical contrivance; we are going to work for the Lord! But hardly
have they embarked upon the proposition before death breaks in, death in
something that has been done with the best of motives and greatest
enthusiasm for the Lord. The end of that thing is death. It bears all
the marks of nature, conferring with flesh and blood about the Lord's
interests, to begin with; of having man's conceptions put into some
shape for the carrying out of the Lord's work, and then of man taking
responsibility and having his hand upon things. It is the realm of death
even in the service of the Lord.
The Levites came in as exactly the opposite of that.
They carried the ark upon their shoulders, not upon a cart. Levites are
those who represent the fact that all the ground of nature has been put
aside as being the ground of death. The testimony represented by this
work is the testimony of Jesus, which is essentially the testimony that
death has been swallowed up in victory. It is a contradiction of that
testimony if you bring in a cart, if you bring in human counsels, if you
bring in Uzza's hand. That is nature, that is man, that is the old
creation. Bring that alongside of the testimony of Jesus and you have a
contradiction, and God will not stand by a contradiction. Death will
smite that thing.
If you are to have the testimony of Jesus established,
everything has to be consistent with that testimony. You will remember
that in the consecration of the Levites there were three offerings; the
sin offering, in which it is declared that this old creation is
destroyed from the presence of God; and then the burnt offering, with
its meal offering mixed with oil, declaring that here is another nature,
the perfected sinless humanity of the Lord Jesus, and His service and
sacrifice, which is accepted by God; and that is the ground of Levitical
acceptance, consecration and service, and it is that principle that
comes in. It is what the Lord Jesus is that is the ground of service,
not our nice counselling and conferences about how to do the work of the
Lord, not our contrivances for the Lord's interests: it is Christ
conducting everything, governing everything. That is life. The testimony
of Jesus is the testimony of life, and everything must be consistent
with that, which means that all that we are by nature must have been put
out by that sacrifice, that offering, that Cross, slain and consumed,
and it is only Christ that is here.
It was just upon that point that the Lord was lighting
all the time in His dealings with the seven churches in Asia. "Not what
you are doing for Me, beloved Ephesus: I know your patience, your labour:
I know. But it is not a matter of what you are doing for Me, even in
your enthusiasm, your devotion, your patient labours; it is whether I
Myself, in the power of My risen life, am transcendent in your midst,
whether in the realm of Satan the effect is felt of the testimony that I
have defeated him and destroyed his power in death". That is the thing
that matters. That, is all in the Blood, and that is the ground of life.
The Lesson of the Candlestick
Now a word in closing. Do remember that, while there is
a change from the candlestick or lampstand of the Holy place in the
tabernacle to the lampstands in the churches in Asia, the principle is
the same. The principle is the testimony of Jesus, the same in both
cases. Now, when you go back to the tabernacle and look in the Holy
place at that lampstand or seven-branched candlestick, what have you
there in type? First of all, in the case of the lampstand, you have the
light thrown upon itself. That was one thing very definitely prescribed
or said about it, that the light of the candlestick would illumine the
candlestick itself; it would stand in its own light, in its own
testimony. Then, in addition, the light would be thrown upon the table
of shewbread, and, further, on the altar of incense. It would illumine
its own vessel and it would illumine all else there.
Now, here is something very precious, because, let us
note, the principle is carried over to Revelation. It is the same thing
in testimony. That lampstand or candlestick, with its central stem and
its six branches, that seven-branched candlestick, is a figure of Christ
and His Church. The New Testament designation is the Body of Christ, of
which He is the Head, the centre and supreme factor. His Church is of
one piece with Him, one Body, all sharing His One Spirit, the one oil -
one testimony, the testimony of Jesus. But this living flame of the
candlestick, which is to be preserved clearly, and continuously, falls
upon the whole candlestick or vessel itself, and says that the testimony
of Jesus must be in a living Body, and the Body itself must be in the
light of the testimony, radiant with its own testimony. It must not be
holding up a light for other things and other people and itself be in
the dark. It must not be declaring in words "Jesus lives" and itself be
dead. It is the livingness of the Church itself which is the testimony;
that it is not only found holding out truth to the world, but is in the
good of that truth itself; that it is not only saying, Jesus has
conquered death and lives, but also saying, I am in the good of that, I
am here as a living witness to that, for the light can shine upon me.
The Church must be able to bear the light of the testimony itself; to
take that light, draw it on itself and say, I am not saying things which
are not true with regard to myself, I am the living expression of that
doctrine.
Beloved, when we speak of the Church, let us remember
that we are members of His Body and that what is true in the whole has
to be true in every part. This is the overcomer. I have to ask myself in
the light of this, Am I an overcomer? You have to ask yourself the same
thing. Are you an overcomer? Can the light of this testimony fall upon
you and find you able to stand up to it? Can we say, He lives, He has
conquered death! not only as a statement concerning the Lord Jesus in
heaven, but as a testimony that is sustained in each of us in what we
are? Can we each one say, The power of that risen life is working in me;
I know the power of His risen life? Has God made me know it through
experience in the depths? Have I known what it is to come up in the
power of His resurrection again and again? Do I know what it is for the
onslaughts of death to be vanquished by the life of the risen Lord in
me? Can we say that? That is the overcomer. No church can have that
testimony beyond the measure in which the individual members thereof
have it. One thing you and I, as members of any local church, must have
our hearts continually set upon is this: O Lord, keep us from becoming
merely a vessel or vehicle of doctrine: make us to be characterized by
the life, so that others coming in, whether they understand what is said
or not, exclaim, I do not understand it all, but there is life: I met
the living Lord there! I would sooner people went away without their
ever having understood a word but able to say that, than for them to
have grasped things mentally and to have felt no impact.
Let us pray that the Lord will make us overcomers
individually and as a company, in this sense, that the testimony shall
not be merely something that we are holding out to the world, to the
Church, but a testimony whose light can fall upon us and we can stand in
the light of our own testimony unashamed.
That light fell upon the table of shewbread, and it declared the
testimony of Jesus as to a living humanity, a Man after God's own heart,
who is our sustenance, our life, our support, our food. We live because
He lives. That is the signification of the shewbread: we live because He
lives. Thus the light falls upon the shewbread, and testifies of Christ
our life. Then the altar of incense testifies to our having a clear way
through to God, an open heaven, communion with God in the risen living
Christ. That is the testimony of Jesus. There is nothing merely
doctrinal about that. To live because He lives, to live upon Him, and to
have a way through Him unto the Father of clear access livingly; that is
the testimony of Jesus, and it needs to be recovered in greater fullness
amongst the Lord's people. Do pray about this, and about your own
participation in it, that the life whereby Jesus conquered death shall
be a reality in you and through you.