More on the Boldness of Grace

I have written more boldly to you on some points…because of the gracegiven to me by God…Great is my boldness of speech toward you.(Romans 15:15 and 2 Corinthians 7:4)

When the grace of God is at work in the lives of His people, spiritual boldness is a common result. This was clearly the testimony of the early church. "They spoke the word of God with boldness …And great grace was upon them all" (Acts 4:31, 33).

The Apostle Paul experienced this same boldness, as he ministered by the grace of God. "I have written more boldly to you on some points…because of the grace given to me by God." Paul's letters often displayed the boldness of grace. Romans was no exception. As he applied the radical truths of the gospel of grace (given in the earlier chapters of Romans), he spoke with characteristic boldness. His exhortation to lay our lives on God's altar is a prime example. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is yourreasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God" (Romans 12:1-2). His call to be clothed in Christ, leaving no room for fleshly tendencies, is another notable instance of boldness. "Let us walk properly, as in the day,not in revelry and drunkenness, not in licentiousness and lewdness, not in strife andenvy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfillits lusts" (Romans 13:13-14). His pronouncement concerning the Lord's ownership of our lives is one more illustration of the boldness of grace. "For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's"(Romans 14:8).

"Great is my boldness of speech toward you" wrote Paul to the saints at Corinth. Just prior to this confession of boldness, he had given a radical request to be separate from the defilements of the world. "Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has lightwith darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are thetemple of the living God" (2 Corinthians 6:14-16). Yes, God's grace works boldness into our lives.