No doubt one of the greatest conversions in all of Christianity was the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, better known to us as the Apostle Paul. Saul was a blasphemer and a fierce persecutor of the church of Jesus Christ before his conversion. Once the Lord got a hold of him and brought him to salvation on the Damascus Road, Saul was a new man. In fact, he was such a new man that the Lord gave him a new name to emphasize how new he was.
Paul’s conversion was such a dramatic moment in his life that he talks about it on multiple occasions in Scripture. Six different times in the New Testament we hear Paul giving the account of his conversion on the Damascus Road. One of those times is just a quick mention of the Lord appearing to him (1 Cor 15:8), so really there are five retellings of his salvation. Three are found in the book of Acts (9:1-19; 22:1-21; 26:4-20), including the account of the salvation itself, one is found in Galatians (1:13-16) and one in Philippians (3:4-11). A retelling of your salvation story is called your testimony, and Paul was not shy to share his testimony.
We find a similar pattern in the texts that detail Paul’s testimony. First, there is an account of his prior life to salvation. He was breathing threats and murders against the church (Acts 9:1-2), he put men and women in prison (Acts 22:4), he forced them to blaspheme (Acts 26:11), he wanted to destroy the church (Gal 1:13), and he had much confidence in his flesh (Phil 3:4). Truly, the salvation of this man was remarkable.
The second part of his testimony is the salvation experience itself. The Damascus Road experience was a pretty dramatic conversion. The Lord appeared to him on the road in a bright light where he was temporarily blinded (Acts 9:4-9) and there the Lord confronted him about his sin. Then he was led to a man named Ananias where, I believe, Ananias helped lead him to the Lord in repentance and faith.
The third part of his testimony was his life after salvation. We find that after meeting with Ananias he was baptized in response to his faith in Christ (Acts 9:18; 22:16). The Lord communicated to him through Ananias that he would become a witness and a servant for Christ and Paul immediately began obeying that commission by proclaiming Jesus (Acts 9:20), calling on people to repent (Acts 26:20), and reflecting on his former life as being all rubbish (Phil 3:8).
From this we learn how to give a testimony and what it is for. A testimony is your personal account of how you came to salvation. It essentially needs to have these three parts to it: a description of your life before salvation, how you came to know the Lord in salvation, and the state of your life after salvation. Every Christian has a testimony of salvation. Every salvation follows this pattern because the Bible says we are born dead in our sins and we need to be born again for salvation (John 3:3). This salvation in Christ produces a holy life and righteous desires for obeying the Lord.
It does concern me how many Christians cannot articulate their own testimony of salvation. Some say things like “I’ve always been a Christian.” That cannot be true because you were born estranged from God and one becomes a Christian when salvation happens (Rom 10:9-10). Some say things like “I was baptized at 16.” That is the aftermath of salvation, not salvation itself. Granted, most people do not have an incredible experience like the Damascus Road but your testimony must adhere to the Biblical pattern of salvation: you didn’t know Jesus to start with, somehow you came to know Jesus, and now you are following Jesus. Maybe you came to Jesus as a young child believing the gospel at church, maybe you came to Jesus through a program like Awana or summer camp, or maybe after a while you just realized you have put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. All of those are real possibilities.
Whenever we baptize a person we ask them to write out their own testimony to give at the time of their baptism. Once you write your testimony you have it with you to use whenever you need it. When would you need it? You might use it on 2 occasions. First, when you want to tell another person about what the Lord has done for you in order to lead this person to Christ. Sharing your testimony can be a great lead-in to the gospel message. Second, when you want to encourage fellow brothers and sisters. We ask people to share their testimony, not because we are skeptical of their story, but because we want to hear how the Lord brought them to salvation. Every testimony is different. And it shows the various ways the Lord brings a person to Christ. So, write out your testimony, share your testimony, and if you don’t have any testimony come and talk to me about what it means to be saved.