Remember the Gospel in Your Testimony

There are some Christians who believe that telling their testimonies, your personal story of how you came to faith in Christ, is equivalent to proclaiming the gospel. While telling people of who we were before we came to faith in Christ is a good thing, we must remember that our personal testimony is not the gospel.

The gospel is that God sent Jesus to redeem mankind from their rebellion against their Creator. In telling people the gospel, we explain that mankind is fallen which can be traced back all the way to the garden, which was a real place, where we are still suffering the effects from the sins of out first parents, Adam and Eve, who were real people. 

We are telling people the bad news before we get to the good news. It is the same message for all people that has been passed down from all generations. Our testimonies are not the same. Yes, there might be similarities in each one of accounts, but they are not the same. The similarities will include that we are sinners under the wrath of a Holy God, who sent His only Begotten Son to redeem us and save us from the wrath of God. The Bible says:

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him (Romans 5:6-9, LSB).

And you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all also formerly conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ⁠—by grace you have been saved⁠—and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:1-7, LSB).

For all of us, who are in Christ, this is our story. How we came to faith in Christ is different. Some of you came to faith by simply being invited to church while being part of a loving family who are just average joes. Some of you may have come to faith in Christ while hearing the gospel as you sit in your jail cell. Regardless of our past, we have the same problem: sin. Sin is an offense to a Holy God who created us and told us how to live yet we ignore His commands and live our own way. 

Christ came to give us new life in Him no matter what our backgrounds are. In proclaiming the gospel, its okay to tell your testimony, but if you omit the gospel, you are simply telling someone a good, emotional story as if it was on the Hallmark Channel. The gospel is about Jesus, not us. We are not that impressive. We are showcase Jesus Christ in the proclamation of the gospel, not us. 

Jesus said, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation" (Mark 16:15, LSB). Preaching the gospel requires speaking about Jesus Christ and what He has done. Our stories are only secondary compared to what He did on our behalf.