Come Boldly

We come boldly to the throne of God because it is a throne of grace. We do not come on the basis of our merit, but we come in the name of Jesus, with praise and thanksgiving, without condemnation. We come boldly because God has bid us to come. The author of Hebrews wrote:

“We have confidence [‘boldness’, NKJV] to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus” (Hebrews 10:19, NIV)

When we pray to God, we should never approach Him with condemnation. Condemnation is one of the greatest enemies to answered prayer. And the basic source of condemnation is a search for self-righteousness. If we feel that we must justify ourselves, we will never do it to our own satisfaction. There must come a time when we lay aside every attempt to justify ourselves and simply say, “I receive by faith the righteousness of Jesus Christ, imputed to me by my faith in Him, according to the Word of God. I will neither parade my good works nor blush for my bad deeds. I will come boldly because it is a throne of grace. I will not examine or analyze my own heart all the time to determine if I am good enough. I will trust God that the blood of Jesus has cleansed me from all sin. And I will come boldly to the throne, right into the Holiest of All.” That is a glorious way of access.

“Let us draw near with a true heart,” the Scripture says, “in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience” (Hebrews 10:22). An evil conscience will keep us from successful prayer. We must allow the blood of Jesus to be applied to our hearts and receive with complete assurance the fact that we are forgiven — cleansed because of what Jesus has done — and then come boldly into the presence of almighty God.