Sometimes when I hear people share their testimony of how they came to believe in Christ, they’ll give this disclaimer: ‘Oh, my testimony isn’t anything interesting.’ Then they’ll talk about how they’ve believed in God for as long as they can remember. Or they were part of a church during their childhood and grew up trusting Jesus. Or they testify to God’s merciful providence in their never having fallen into any scandalous, family-splitting, relationship-severing, law-breaking sin. Then they’ll repeat their disclaimer as a conclusion: ‘So my story is pretty average and boring.’ But the Bible begs to differ.
‘He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.’ (Col. 1:13-14)
‘And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.’ (Col. 2:13-14)
Being delivered from Satan, sin, and death is anything but average or boring. Having your sins forgiven and being redeemed and made alive is mind-boggling. The idea that anyone’s testimony of blood-bought salvation could be uninteresting or unspectacular is a defamation of the work of Christ.
Your testimony may have occurred in the most ordinary of circumstances, but behind the scenes a spiritual battle was taking place. The Holy Spirit of God peeled the scales from your spiritually blind eyes, awakened your soul to the bright light of the gospel in the face of Jesus Christ, and breathed life into your lifeless soul. God rescued you from the domain of darkness—however gilded or ordinary or innocent it seemed. Then God transferred you into the kingdom of his beloved Son.
No testimony that involves the Son of God bearing your sins on the cross in order to bring you to God could ever be mundane or boring. It’s an epic birth story—a born-again birth story.
The morning my second daughter, Norah, was born began just like every other morning. I rolled my large self over and turned off the alarm clock. Then the birth pangs began before I sat up. I managed the contractions by myself for a little while, then I woke up my husband, my oldest daughter, and my friend Amber who was staying with us. I said, ‘Time to go!’ An hour or so after we got to the hospital, Norah was born. Even though the details aren’t dramatic in and of themselves, Norah is the crowning glory of that story. The fact that she was born is what makes that story special and anything but ordinary.
The miracle of being born again in Christ Jesus is a birth story that is anything but ordinary. Never get over the grace of God in choosing to give you eternal life! Marvel at the magnitude of God’s mercy to save sinners. Cherish the Son of God’s willingness to die on your behalf so that you might be born again by faith. Rejoice that the Holy Spirit of God now dwells in you. How can your testimony be blasé?
God’s sovereign, undeserved grace makes your story special and anything but ordinary.
Excerpt taken from Glimpses of Grace: Treasuring the Gospel in Your Home by Gloria Furman (Crossway 2013). Used by permission.
