We Are Very Bold

Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.

2 Corinthians 3:12

Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury in the sixteenth century, was noted for promoting the Reformation in England. He repudiated the rule of the pope in Rome and attempted to bring about a union between the Church of England and the Lutheran church of Germany.

Later, when Mary Tudor, a devout Roman Catholic, became Queen of England, Cranmer was imprisoned. He was convicted of treason and heresy, and was threatened with torture and death. Under this pressure, Cranmer signed a series of confessions in which he recanted his earlier support for the Reformation, his proclaiming of salvation by grace through faith, and his belief that the Scriptures belonged to all the people.

Even though he signed the recantations demanded of him, and despite promises made to him that these signed documents would save him from death, the papers were presented as evidence against him in a final trial for treason. The court condemned him to death by burning at the stake, but told him the sentence would not be carried out if he made a public recantation of his former beliefs. He was taken before a large crowd to confess his former errors, but instead of confessing, he declared, My conscience will not let me deny the truth any longer, even to save my life. I have signed seven recantations of the truth, and I bitterly regret each one. I abhor my right hand for signing those recantations, and when they take me to the flames, I shall hold my right hand steadfastly in the flames.

The authorities stopped him in mid-speech, dragged him out of the church, and took him away to be executed. As the fire was being prepared, he trusted God to give him the strength to keep his promise, and he boldly thrust his right hand into the flames. Then he was bound to the stake and put to a martyr's death.

Boldness! That is the result of trust in God, trust in the new covenant—everything coming from God, nothing coming from me. Boldness, courage, and confidence are just what people everywhere are searching for. They know that effective action must issue from a courageous spirit. They try in a thousand ways to summon up that confidence from within, but they are looking in the wrong place. There is a form of boldness they can find in themselves, but it will end as a fading glory. That is not the source of Paul's boldness! He has found the secret of true boldness. His boldness is rooted in a sure hope, a conviction that God is ready to work in him.

All who trust in this hope become noticeably bold. They are not trusting in themselves or in some effort they are making on behalf of God but on God himself, and thus they can be supremely confident. Since success does not depend any longer on their dedication, then they can be very bold. It is God who will do it, and he can be depended upon not to fail. When we can trust that God is capable to work in any given situation, he delivers us completely from the fear of failure. At that moment, what else can we be but invincibly bold!

Grant me boldness, Lord, not in the power of the flesh but in the confidence that you are at work in and through me. Amen.