The Blood of the Martyrs is the Seed of the Church by Cole Richards

Persecution has been part of the experience of serving and following God from the beginning of human history. Abel, the second human born into God's new creation, was killed for his faith and obedience by his brother Cain.  In response, God told Cain that his brother's blood was "crying to me from the ground" as a testimony against Cain's sin (Genesis 4:10). Only a perfect blood sacrifice could redeem the sin of mankind, and the writer of Hebrews points out that the blood of Christ declares a better testimony that that of the blood of Abel (12:24). Abel's blood cries out for justice and vengeance, whereas the blood of Christ cries out for forgiveness and redemption.

We are ordained to share this message with everyone, everywhere, at any cost. Any sacrifice we make, including the shedding of our blood, will not add to Christ's work on the cross, but he has ordained that we must sometimes spill our blood to proclaim his message to a lost world.

In his work, Apologeticus (ca. A.D. 200), the early church leader and author Tertullian wrote, "The oftener we are mown down by you, the more in number we grow: the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." This paints a powerful picture of reaping during a harvest. Persecutors cut us down as a harvester takes a sickle to grain, but our blood is seeding the church's future growth.

The word martyr has overwhelmingly taken on the meaning of its second biblical usage: those who have been killed for their faith and witness (note Revelation 6:9) But the word's first use in Scripture simply means "witness." Christ instructed his followers to be his witnesses (martyrs) "to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8). We can synthesize the Scripture's teaching to understand that we are called to be Christ's faithful witnesses and to pay any price necessary to do so.

As Christ's disciples, we are not extremists who seek death.  Rather, we seek to faithfully obey Christ Jesus our Lord.  We do not seek to die for him, but rather to serve him at any cost. We do so with the assurance that if we must suffer or even die, our blood will cry out as a witness to the blood he shed for us and for our persecutors.

(This article was written by Cole Richards, President, The Voice of the Martyrs, June 2023, Volume 57, No. 6).