Every servant of Christ should be bold. He has nothing to conceal and should have nothing to fear. “The righteous are bold as a lion” (Prov. 28:1). The possession of the truth, held with a good conscience in the fear of God, raises the soul above all other fear.
We read that Moses “feared not the wrath of the king.” He caused that king to tremble. He was bold.
Elijah, standing before the Lord, was fearless in the presence of the godless King Ahab, and foretold a drought which would only be removed at his word. He was bold.
Daniel, though charged to make no petition of God or man for thirty long days, save only of the great king of Babylon, flung his window wide open toward the desolated house of God in Jerusalem, and, spite of the charge and the lion’s den, he prayed three times a day. He was bold.
The apostles Peter and John, though ignorant and unlearned men, held their ground firmly before the council in Acts 4, and maintained the glory of the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who, though the stone despised of the builders, had been made “head of the corner,” and the sole spring and source of salvation. They were bold and their “boldness” astonished their wicked judges.
Martin Luther declared that, though Worms contained as many devils as tiles on its houses, he would go to announce the glorious truth of justification by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He was bold.
Read Hebrews 11 for a “cloud of witnesses,” or “Foxe’s Book of Martyrs” for more. They loved not their lives unto the death. The truth of God and the honour of Christ were more to them than all beside. They were bold. We are compassed about by such a cloud!
And what shall we do?
“Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus.” He and not they, is our only model; but He “endured the cross, and despised the shame.” How supremely bold was He!
The glory of God and the blessing of man hung on His boldness. He came to do the will of God. This meant the full tale of “the sufferings of Christ.” Gethsemane and its bloody sweat, Calvary and its atoning agonies—all so freely endured by our blessed Substitute, so that the work of the enemy should be undone and creation placed on a foundation of righteousness for ever. For this He “set His face like a flint” and He was not ashamed.
“He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied.” The effects of that travail shall be worldwide. It was the conception of this that caused Esaias to be “very bold!” He was so bold as to say: “I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me” (Rom. 10:20).
Here we have a Jewish prophet, circumscribed naturally and religiously by a rigid exclusivism, relating the fact that God was found of those who never sought Him by sacrifice or ritual, and was made manifest to them that never asked after Him by prayer or other means.
The river of His grace swept over the boundaries of Judaism and flowed freely over the poor, dark, heathen world.
“Behold me, behold me” was the message through Esaias (Isa. 65:1-2) which sounded far and wide beyond all the limits of the land of Israel.
It required no little boldness for Isaiah to make such a statement. The eldest son was jealous of the prodigal, and the Jew is jealous of the Gentile.
The natural heart would monopolize the grace of God to itself; but that grace is boundless, free, common to all.
Let us be more bold in the confession of every truth. The apostles prayed for this in Acts 4:29, and Paul in Ephesians 6:19.
Esaias is the great evangelistic prophet—the prophet of grace—and he it is who is described as “very bold.”
Grace wants bold confessors. Let its lovely accents be fearlessly proclaimed. It “brings salvation to all” (Titus 2) even though its recipients may be few. It makes known the love of God to a guilty world. It tells out all that He is. It lays down no conditions. It is “abundant” and it reigns “through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Shame to us if we secrete such a story, if we confine it to person, place, or people. Grace is evangelistic and bold. “Esaias is very bold” and that because of the gracious message he delivers.