Being a Christian in the world we live in today demands a certain kind of boldness in the face of spiritual resistance. We face a lot of opposition because people are opposed to the message of Christ and society has put a stigma upon people who believe that Jesus is the only way to hope and life everlasting. We are made fun of and considered stupid and even betrayed as outcasts in the media outlets. We live in a world where faith and spirituality are constantly resisted, where the vast majority of the ideas shaping our world treat God as though He were unnecessary or non-existent.
We live in a society that is anti-God and people have removed Him from our culture in America, which was the foundation of this country which was founded on Godly principles by Godly men. Yet, people are appalled at what Christians believe. Things like: God made the world, sin broke it, and God is reconciling all the world to Himself through Jesus – His Son who lived, died, rose again, simply confessing this belief is a bold claim and living it out demands even more boldness. Boldness to not conform to the world and the things in it as Paul tells us in Romans 12:2 to not be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind….
Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:13-14 that wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there are many who go in by it (so it is easy for us to conform to the world and follow others down the wrong road). Because narrow is the gate and difficult or confined is the way which leads to life, there are few who find it. It’s not easy to go down the path of righteousness and to go against the culture and to do what Christ calls us to do. We have a choice to follow Jesus or follow the world. If we choose to follow Jesus down the narrow path to be a bold pro-claimer of the gospel we can’t be ashamed of the gospel or the testimony of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We need to have a fervent love for Christ and its that love for Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit that will help us to share our faith.
2 Corinthians 5:18 tells us that it’s God who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. We who have been reconciled have been given the ministry of reconciliation in that He has committed to us the message of reconciliation to share. With that being said, we are not saved to sit, but we are saved to be sent. That is our responsibility as believers in Christ. But I would go so far to say that is actually our privilege to join God in His mission to reach the lost.
Christian boldness isn’t something we simply have to work up for ourselves; it comes through faith in Jesus Christ and through the gift of the Holy Spirit, who empowers us and gives us boldness to live for the glory of our Savior. Jesus deserves first place in our lives, which will be reflected in our actions for His name sake – if we truly love Him and He means more than anything else in this world and in our lives, it will be demonstrated in our actions to boldly proclaim the gospel.
If we believe the gospel is true, then we must act on what we believe, asking God for boldness and then proclaiming the truth. Actions typically demonstrate what we believe – so are we living out what we believe?
In Christ and for His Glory,
RICH WISE
