Rev.12:11, “…they have conquered him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.”
Satan—the Great Dragon—is decisively conquered when the “Male Child” (Christ) is raised to the throne of God (Rev.12:5), which is to say, when He is lifted up on the cross. Christ’s ascent to the cross of Calvary (which is the throne of the universe, Rev.5:6ff), is the judgment and final casting out of Satan (John 12:31). The Dragon is conquered through the slaughter of the Lamb—the very Lamb who (as the slain one) is raised up to live and reign from the Altar-Throne of God forevermore.
And yet, this passage does not say that the Dragon is defeated by the slain and living Lamb, per se, but by the disciples of the Lamb. It seems, then, that the blood of the martyrs who hold fast to Christ even unto death IS the blood of the Lamb, the blood of their Lord—whose body they are. Christ’s witness unto death on the cross—His witness to the Truth about God—is the decisive and definitive victory of God. But this victory is embodied / extended throughout time in His body, which is to say, in the saints. WE are the extension throughout time and space of the single Body of the Crucified Jesus who is Risen. As WE bear witness and join Him in His death of God-revealing love, we too overcome the Dragon, enacting, extending, embodying the single decisive victory of our Lord upon Calvary.
One implication of this is that the disciples of Christ will always, only, and ever conquer as their Lord has conquered. We conquer the Dragon (be it Satan or the world system that follows him), NOT by a show of force, BUT by being slaughtered in faithful witness to the self-giving love of our God, to whom alone our allegiance belongs. If we are disciples of the Lamb, we will look like the Lamb. Christian, are we settled in our minds and hearts that our victory comes not through the strength or anger or violence of the world, but through following our Lord in humble and enduring witness unto death?
