Late last week, ISIS-affiliated terrorists in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) rounded up 70 Christians, corralled them into a church, beheaded them, and left their bodies for others to find later. The facts are disturbing, and we naturally recoil from contemplating this barbaric display of Islamist violence. This horror seems a world away — not to mention a thousand years in the past.

But underneath the revulsion, if we force ourselves to stare at this evidence of human depravity a moment longer, what other emotions does it stir within us? One natural response is pity for the weak and defenseless villagers who were massacred unresistingly for no good reason. This may be quickly followed by a flash of thankfulness that we enjoy much greater security in America, that we may never face the business end of a sword for our faith.

But, when I suggest these are natural responses, I mean partly that these reactions come out of our fallen human nature. God’s word would lead our thoughts in quite a different direction.

Firstly, we cannot indulge the fantasy that our situation is all that different from these Congolese Christians — at least considered from a perspective limited to this present age. We too are called to live self-sacrificial lives, walk blamelessly before a hostile world, and endure opposition for following Christ. If the Lord tarries, we too will die with our greatest hopes unrealized. Paul writes that, “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:19).

But secondly, Scripture declares that these defenseless Christians are not pre-eminently pitiable, but blessed. “Blessed are you,” Jesus taught, “when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account” (Matthew 5:11). He added that anyone who heeds these words would be established like a house on a rock, which is able to withstand the oncoming storm (Matthew 7:24-25).

In his next discourse, Jesus rachets up the warning, “Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:21-22).

After repeating this call for endurance (Revelation 14:12), John records a heavenly confirmation of the blessedness of martyrs. “And I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Blessed indeed,’ says the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!’” (Revelation 14:13).

Why does Jesus consider persecuted, defenseless Christians to be “blessed”? One reason is that they are following in his footsteps. The night before he himself was put to death, Jesus told his disciples, “Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. … But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause’” (John 15:20, 25).

Of course, Jesus’s death was quickly followed by his resurrection. And those who follow him into death will also follow him into everlasting life, since Jesus Christ is “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20). As Paul describes it, this is undeniably glorious: “What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:42-44).

In the moment “when the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory’” (1 Corinthians 15:54).

Yet we live in the period of time between Jesus’s resurrection and the final resurrection, as the Lord patiently waits for all the elect to reach repentance (2 Peter 3:9) and the number of those martyred for the name of Jesus to be complete (Revelation 6:11).

John sees the souls of these slain saints crying out to God for justice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Revelation 6:10). When God does answer the prayer, the fortunes will be reversed. These martyrs will rise to everlasting glory, while their persecutors will face everlasting torment. Unless they repent and believe in the interim, the wicked will look for the pity they did not show, and they will not find it.

Thus, the slain in Christ are blessed because they have conquered. In following Christ, they have conquered death, as Paul describes. They conquered Satan by their faithfulness, as John writes, “they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death” (Revelation 12:11). And they will even live to see their Lord defeat the very persecutors who gained a temporary victory over their physical bodies.

This is true for all believers. But it stands out in sharper relief for those who, like these Congolese Christians, God has caused to seal their witness with their blood. However weak, or helpless they appear in the world’s eyes, God calls them faithful, and God calls them blessed. “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).