ANNOUNCER: Welcome to Grace in Focus podcast radio broadcast. Thank you so much for letting us come into your space. Now today, Kathryn Wright is going to give some concluding thoughts on this topic of giving your testimony. What is the most clear way to share a testimony? Kathryn outlines three steps that will help you give a clear testimony that will point those who hear it to Christ, to His promise of eternal salvation. If you have missed this series so far, you can go to faithalone.org, find a podcast there and you can listen to past episodes. Also, on faithalone.org, I would like to invite you to have a look at the information that is there about our online seminary, Grace Evangelical Theological Seminary, which is underwritten by our generous donors, and offers scholarships for those who want to study and earn an MDiv degree. If this sounds interesting to you, we are right now in our application window and also in our registration window for the fall semester. So why don’t you go to our website and get the information you need? Go through the application process and get signed up. We would love to hear from you. It is faithalone.org/seminary.
Now here are Kathryn and Bob with today’s discussion.
BOB: Kathryn, good to have you back.
KATHRYN: Thanks for having me.
BOB: We’re at the stage, we’re going to talk about the correct way a testimony should be done. And this is difficult because there’s no verse we can turn to in the Bible that says, do a testimony this way. In fact, we’re not even commanded to tell people this is how I came to faith in Christ.
KATHRYN: I know. That is kind of after all of these conversations, the conclusion is just don’t give your testimony. No, I’m just kidding.
BOB: Well, actually, you shouldn’t be kidding because if a person’s testimony is unclear, better off not to say it.
KATHRYN: I think there is kind of a side conversation to ask about, is that really the best way to evangelize?
BOB: Well, that’s right. In fact, 1 John 5:11-13 or 9-13. And that’s where it’s called God’s testimony. And so instead of saying, here’s my testimony, let’s see what God testifies about his Son. What does God the Father say about His Son? That’s the ultimate testimony, right?
KATHRYN: That’s exactly right. We talked in a previous episode about how we looked to Paul as the example, but I tend to think that maybe we should look to Christ as the example and what God has to say about His Son and is that we believe in Him for eternal life. And that’s what He has said. That’s His testimony. And that’s that’s final.
BOB: That’s right. Now, we probably could say, look, the Bible doesn’t forbid giving testimonies and Paul does give some sort of a testimony in the book of Acts, right? And he does say in 1 Timothy 1:16, that he’s an example of those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life. So we get some clues, but it would probably best to say, if you never shared your testimony with anybody, it probably wouldn’t be some terrible thing. Other than it seems to me, you would want to obviously share your testimony with your children or with your parents or with your brothers and sisters, yeah, especially if people are interested, which people generally are. So what does a clear testimony look like?
KATHRYN: Well, we’ve been talking about the standard three step process. So we’re going to give our new revised version. A three step process. So again, just suggestions, right? These are just suggestions. And so step one, we’d suggest maybe describing what you used to believe, talk about what it was that you believed before coming to faith. And so the emphasis is on belief, which is something that will be a theme throughout these three steps.
BOB: Which, by the way, is implicit in Paul’s testimony in Acts. Because when he says, I was a Pharisee, I was a Hebrew of Hebrews, I was a persecutor of the Church, he was basically talking about, I believed what you believe, I believed in works salvation.
KATHRYN: Exactly. And so, you know, if you were an atheist before you were saved, talks about that say that and say, I didn’t believe in a God and whatever. Or if you were maybe Catholic and were believing in your works, if you were a legalist like Paul, maybe you were Jew and you were basing your salvation on something related to that or if you were Hindu or whatever it was, talk about what it is you believed before.
Now, I will say, slight disclaimer on that, if you came to faith as a child, that’s probably going to be hard. That’s why this is just a suggestion, right? You know, I was saved as a kid and I don’t, I don’t remember that moment, I don’t remember any of that, which kind of a slight detour on that. You know, a lot of the time with testimonies, dates are a big deal. And can I just say, if you know the date that you were saved, don’t share it, you just don’t share it. It’s not relevant and it can be really confusing to people, especially those that came to faith as children. Describe what you believed before. If you were a kid and you don’t remember then say that, you know, that’s fine too.
And then step two, I would say, tell them what you believe now, what it is that you’ve been convinced of now, which is that Jesus has given you eternal life by faith alone as a free gift that can never be lost. Go to 1 John 5, verses 11 through 13-ish and talk about the testimony of God, which is the most important and point them to the truth, which is that they can know, that they can know, that they have eternal life by faith alone in Jesus.
BOB: Right. If they believe in the Son, they have the life. Right. But it’s not a matter of works. It’s simply matter of believing. Yeah, I like that. I used to believe this. Now I believe this. Is that is a two-step approach, then?
KATHRYN: Now I will tell you, I used to have that as my original two step approach. I have added a third step and again, just a suggestion. Now you had an interesting suggestion earlier that maybe we can share, but mine, my version would be, tell them what convinced you. So basically, you tell them what you used to believe, tell them what you believe now, and then you tell them why you believed. What convinced you of it.
ANNOUNCER: The Grace Evangelical Society’s recently published Old Testament Commentary, Volume One is now available. Find it at faithalone.org/store. It’s where you can also find Bob Wilkin’s latest book, The Gospel is Still Under Siege, as well as many other titles by Grace Evangelical Society authors. Please come by and have a look today. You’ll find the GES store at our website, faithalone.org. That’s faithalone.org/store. Now back to today’s topic.
KATHRYN: The reason I add this third step is because that’s where I think our unique stories can come in, where you can say I was convinced Bob, you were convinced by Ephesians 2:8-9. Somebody else may have been convinced because creation spurred you to look and then you started studying and then you were convinced whatever it was that convinced you and that’s where I think our unique stories can be helpful. That’s not, I’m not pointing to my works, I’m pointing to the evidence and the evidence can be as broad or as small as you want it to be.
BOB: See, this is a good point. I like this three step approach with third being what convinced you because I’ve often said this, there’s only one way to be born again. That’s by faith in Christ for what He promises, everlasting life. But how you get there, there might be thousands of ways, right? Like you say, some people may come through atheism. Some people may come through agnosticism. Some people may come to believe in young earth creationism and then somehow stumble upon the writings of Zane Hodges or stumble upon Grace Evangelical Society and come to understand that it’s simply by faith apart from works, but there’s a host of other ways people could come to faith, yet there’s only one way and that’s by faith in Christ. People can tell their different stories and then all the different testimonies are centering around believing.
KATHRYN: Exactly. It’s what I believed before, what I believe now and what convinced me to believe that this is true. And I think that this reflects the Gospel of John. Because John tells us in his gospel why he wrote, he wrote to tell unbelievers how they can be saved, how they can receive eternal life by believing. And he says, John chapter 20, verses 30 through 31, that the miracles, the signs that he has presented in his gospel were for this purpose, were to convince his readers of something. So what do we see in the gospel of John is all types of people who come to faith by different evidence.
BOB: That’s great. All right, I’ve got a testimony for you that most people wouldn’t think of. It’s a woman. It’s a woman at the well. And in John 4, verse 28, she left her water pot, which some commentators think is her old religion, right, works salvation water. And she went into the city and she said to the men, come see a man who told me all things I ever did. This is her testimony. I met a man who told me everything I ever did, could this be the Christ? And a lot of commentators suggest the reason she asked it as a question instead of making an emphatic statement is because she had a low reputation. And so then the story goes on in verse 39, it says, many of the Samaritans of the city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, he told me all things I ever did. That was her testimony.
KATHRYN: That’s exactly right. And what’s interesting is that the men of Sychar later say, we believed not just because of what she has said, but now we’ve listened to the Lord, but what’s so significant about that passage is that they didn’t come to faith because of the miracle. They came to faith just by the words that were spoken to them. But in chapter 11, we’re told that after the Lord resurrected Lazarus, many people came to faith. So what convinced the men of Sychar or what convinced the woman at the well, or what convinced the people in John 11 are all different.
BOB: Yeah. Or Nicodemus in John 3, it seems to be because Jesus’ explanation of the Old Testament is convincing.
KATHRYN: Yes, there’s a variety of evidence that John presents his readers. Yeah, seven or eight signs, depending on how you take it and all are designed to lead people to faith. But in some cases, they come to faith without a sign. That’s exactly right. Although when Jesus tells the woman you’ve had five husbands and the one you’re living with, it’s not your husband, even though it’s not called to sign in John’s gospel. And even though it’s not called a miracle, it is some kind of supernatural knowledge.
KATHRYN: You know, somebody could come to faith in John chapter one, just with that evidence, right? Somebody may have to read all through chapter four. Somebody may read the Lord turning the water into wine. And that’s what convinces them. Or maybe they have to read the whole story. They have to get all the way to chapter 21. So that’s what we mean by evidence. There’s a lot of things to know about Christ. There’s a lot of things that prove that He is the one that can give you eternal life as a free gift. But what convinced you is not what convinced me.
We don’t want to rob people of the uniqueness of our stories because there is a unique quality to everybody’s testimony. But at the heart of it, it should always be that we’re pointing people to the promise of eternal life through our Savior, not looking at our works at all. None of that is talking about transformation. That should be reserved for when we’re talking about discipleship. And that sounds really harsh sometimes because we live in a culture where people want to look to their truth, and their experience’s validation. And while that’s not to undermine our experiences, it can support the truth, but we should be pointing people to Christ first and foremost. Let’s test our testimonies. Let’s look at them and really have a discerning eye because realize it’s important. It’s powerful. It impacts your family and impacts you. Don’t let people rob you of your assurance.
BOB: So we’ve been talking about testimonies and we’ve gotten down to where we’ve given the sample testimony. We’ll kind of wrap things up in the next show, an overview of everything we’ve said about testimonies. So keep grace in focus.
ANNOUNCER: Thank you both for that informative discussion. Our goal at the Grace Evangelical Society is to teach Scripture clearly and without confusion. One of the best tools for that clarity we believe is our website. It’s faithalone.org. That’s faithalone.org. On our site we have all kinds of materials that are designed to help you mature and grow in your faith and your understanding of Scripture. Please come visit us at faithalone.org. That’s faithalone.org. You’ll be glad you did. God loves a cheerful giver and that’s why we think our financial partners are some of the happiest people in the world. If you would like to learn how to become a financial partner with Grace in Focus, we would very much appreciate it. Learn more at faithalone.org. It’s really exciting to hear from our listeners. So if you’ve got a question, comment, or feedback, I hope you’ll reach out to us. Best way to do that is through email. Here is our email address. It’s radio@faithalone.org. That’s radio@faithalone.org.
And on the next Grace in Focus, we will wrap up this short series that we’ve been presenting on testimonies. Join us again next time for Grace in Focus.
