Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for You are with me. Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me… My times are in Your hands. Deliver me from the hands of my enemies, from those who pursue me… Christ’s followers triumphed over Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. (Psalms 23:4, 31:15; Revelation 12:11)
Note: This post was updated in 2026 and is an excerpt from the class “Christ is Everything to His Followers.” Also used in pastoral care, counseling, and prison ministry.
Perpetua’s Story
Vibia Perpetua (180-203 AD) was a young woman of faith in Christ. Perpetua was 22 at the time of her martyrdom, married and well educated. Her mother was a Christian, but her father was a pagan (a believer in false gods). Perpetua was a new follower of Jesus, not yet baptized, when she was imprisoned. She and fellow believers suffered together in modern-day Tunisia, North Africa, because of their allegiance to Christ.1
Jesus is, and was, and always will be God’s Son. But at God’s right time, He came down and united with humanity to become the unique God-man. Then Christ lived the fully obedient life we failed to live, died the death we deserved to die, and rose from the grave to save us from our sins and bring us back to His Father. Jesus’ claims challenged the Roman Empire. The imperial cult asserted that Caesar was the divine “son of god,” and they hated competition!
In 202 AD, the Roman emperor Septimius Severus prohibited conversions to Christianity. Perpetua, Felicitas (her servant), and other new believers were jailed and sentenced to die. Perpetua kept a journal, documenting the Lord’s care for her in prison, just as He had sustained Joseph in Bible times.2 Perpetua declared, “The dungeon became a palace to me, and I would rather have been there than anywhere else.” In that depressing place, she enjoyed sweet spiritual fellowship with the Risen Jesus and His people. She learned to be content in Christ, even in the hardest of circumstances. Perpetua is an example for us.
Now, as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far. (Philippians 1:20-23)
When Perpetua’s father begged her to deny Jesus, she said: “I cannot call myself any other than who I am, a Christian.” While in chains, Perpetua trusted Christ and waited on Him. Whether she lived or died. Whether her imprisonment ended in freedom or martyrdom. When she realized that she was going to die, she accepted Christ’s hard providence for her, even though it was not what she wanted.
No guilt in life, no fear in death. This is the power of Christ in me. From life’s first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny. No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck me from His hand. ‘Til He returns or calls me home, here in the power of Christ I’ll stand!3
On the evening before their martyrdom, Perpetua and the other believers celebrated the Lord’s Supper, focusing on Christ’s historic death and resurrection for them, His present upholding them, and His future welcoming them home into glory. Then, as they approached the arena, they sang Psalms in the strength of the Holy Spirit. Perpetua and Felicitas were beheaded, and the other believers were killed by wild dogs. They all died, trusting Christ the Savior, even as people mocked them. Their eyes were not on the crowds, but on their resurrected Savior.
Jesus said. “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die. And whoever lives by believing in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)
James, the Lord’s half-brother, declared, “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love Him. (James 1:12)
Christianity Grows
Christ said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds… The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” (John 12:23-24; Matthew 13:31-32)
Jesus’ death and resurrection (the single seed) brings in a huge harvest, an interracial, international, innumerable multitude of sinners saved by grace.4 God’s chosen new covenant people are redeemed by the blood of Christ. You are not cheap to the Lord, beloved believers. You were purchased by God at the highest price, and He will never lose a single one of us! So let’s never be ashamed to tell others of our Savior!
Justin Martyr
Justin (90-165 AD), another early Christian, was put on trial, together with six friends, by Junius Rusticus, a Roman teacher and politician. All of them were beheaded.5 Yet Justin wrote these words:
No one terrifies us since we have set our faith on the Risen Jesus. For though we are killed, and crucified, and exposed to beasts and chains and fire and other forms of torture, we do not forsake Christ our Lord. The more things of this kind happen to us, the more there are others who become believers, by Jesus working through His Holy Spirit.
The Blood of the Martyrs
Early Christian theologian Tertullian of Carthage (c. 160–225), also from North Africa, famously predicted, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”6 He meant that brutal persecution and execution of Christians did not destroy Jesus’ Church, but instead caused it to spread and grow.
George Woudhuysen, a Wall Street Journal writer, noted that in Perpetua’s lifetime, Christians were a tiny, sometimes persecuted minority. But after Emperor Constantine’s conversion in 312 AD, the Roman Empire came under Christian rule. Around 350 AD, North Africa became “the Bible Belt” of the late Roman West, marked by intense Christian devotion and intellectual advancement. By God’s grace, that environment produced Augustine of Hippo (354–430), better known as St. Augustine, the greatest and most influential theologian in the Western tradition. The bravery of martyrs inspired more people to follow Christ the Risen King!
Old Testament Christ Followers
Job lived during the days of Abraham (c. 2000 BC) and suffered in ways different from those of Perpetua. Yet he trusted in the same Lord as she did and said:
I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. I myself will see Him with my own eyes. How my heart yearns within me! (Job 19:25-27)
Many Old Testament writers shared the same hope of future eternal life with God! They wrote:
Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt… Your dead shall live. Their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!.. I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O My people, You shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves… God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for He will receive me… He will revive us after two days. He will raise us up on the third day, that we may live before Him… He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces. (Daniel 12:2; Isaiah 26:19: Ezekiel 37:12-14; Psalm 49:15; Hosea 6:2; Isaiah 25:8)
Perpetua’s faith in Christ was strong, but that’s not the biggest lesson we learn from her. She points us away from ourselves up to God! Praise the Lord, Perpetua and all true believers are delivered by our strong and perfect Savior! Even when our faith is weak and wobbly, Jesus saves us all through this life and brings us into the next world to be with Him forever.
The Apostle Paul
Paul was also courageous and hopeful before his martyrdom, and he wrote:
For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for His appearing. (2 Timothy 4:6-8)
Ready to Live
Preparedness to die for Christ leads to eagerness and intention to pour out our lives in serving Him and others now.
We live by faith, not by sight… So we make it our goal to please the Lord, whether we are at home in the body or away from it… For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. If we live, we live for the Lord. And if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that He might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. (Romans 14:7-9; 2 Corinthians 5:7,9)
In Christ alone my hope is found. He is my light, my strength, my song. This Cornerstone, this solid ground, firm through the fiercest drought and storm. What heights of love, what depths of peace, when fears are stilled, when strivings cease. My Comforter, my All in All. Here in the love of Christ I stand.7
Notes (various Bible translations): 1 This chapter is based in part on Christian History, Issue 37 (1993), and George Woudhuysen’s article, “Perpetua and Augustine the African: Suffering and Sainthood” Wall Street Journal, Dec. 19, 2025. 2 Genesis Chapter 39. 3 Excerpt From “In Christ Alone” by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend (2002). 4 Rev 7:9. 5 After his death, Justin was nicknamed Justin Martyr. Some form of the Greek word martureo is used over 80 times in the New Testament. It means a witness, or to bear witness, as in a legal trial. We affirm that we have seen, heard, or experienced something. Christians know God’s truth because He has revealed it to us, so we give testimony to others; we don’t keep it back. In English, the word “martyr” describes someone who bears witness by laying down their life. 6 www.gotquestions.org/blood-martyrs-seed-church. 7 Excerpt From “In Christ Alone” by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend (2002).