When Jesus spoke with His friend Martha after the death of her brother Lazarus, she inquired tentatively whether Jesus might ask His Father for Lazarus' life to be restored. Jesus quickly corrected her: I AM the resurrection and the life! Christ is not just powerful enough to raise His people from the grave. He is, rather, resurrection and life itself! His identity itself is resurrection and life. By His almighty power, as God Himself, He raises up all His people who trust in Him. This is because all of life was created by the Son of God. Jesus pushes further: whoever believes on Him, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Whoever lives and believes in Him shall never die. Even in death, His trusting loved ones merely rest in sleep, a rest from which one day, Jesus will awaken us, and we shall never die forever! Everlasting life is here again promised by Jesus. How can God be just and justify sinners? How can the promised judgment for sin be reversed, legally and morally, so that God's promise of wrath is fulfilled against us? In John 10, Jesus described the only method: He should lay down His life for His people, His sheep, whom God had given to Him for safekeeping! But there is an additional duty imposed upon Christ, not only to lay down His life to save His sheep, but also to take up His life again in resurrection. Only in that way can Christ fully and completely save His lost loved ones, by dying in their place, and rising again in vindication and glory to lose none of them, that none of them ever could be snatched away from His saving, strong arms.

In Ephesians 3, Paul describes the mystery of the Gospel, only then revealed in full. That God would save Gentiles as well as Jews, and unite them all together in Christ's church, was a veiled truth until after the Resurrection. But all of this was the eternal purpose, proposed in Christ Jesus as Lord. So by faith in Christ, we all have boldness, and access in confidence to our God. That faith was itself given to us by God through the Holy Ghost. By Christ's blood shed and presented in the holiest place in glory, and being cleansed by that blood, by faith we lay hold upon that boldness and confidence in Christ. Paul insists that those believers faint not because of his own persecutions. Indeed, being bold in Christ in the face of those persecutions is our glory. Paul next prays for them, as members of the family of God in Christ, that according to His riches in glory, they would be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. Paul seeks that Christ might dwell in our hearts by faith, and we ourselves rooted and grounded in the love of Christ, so that we might be able to comprehend, with all the saints, the infinite greatness of the love of Christ. Oh, how we need to grasp the truth of Christ dwelling in our hearts, and believe it is so! It is the unity of the Lord's people by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, which knits us together with Christ, and the Father, and with each other, that we may all be one in Christ! Oh, that we would know the love of Christ, which naturally cannot be known, but by His Spirit in us, and that we would be filled with the fullness of God Himself! In a real sense, the saints are all "taken over" by the Spirit of Christ in us.

In Philippians 1, Paul describes how his persecution advances the Gospel! In his bondage, he displays the Gospel message even in the palace, and its spread is thereby furthered. Notice that this is the opposite of what false teachers preach. The Gospel is not preached by violence by believers, but rather by violence AGAINST believers! Further, Paul's boldness induces boldness in other Gospel preachers! Paul exclaimed that "many waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear." Some people even preached the Gospel to hurt Paul, but he rejoiced in that also. Paul rejoiced in every way that Christ was preached. Rather than shutting down the Gospel message by jailing Paul, instead the Gospel message exploded. Paul expected to be released from his bonds, due to the saints' prayers for him, and the further supply of the Holy Ghost. Paul had an earnest expectation, that he wouldn't be ashamed of anything, but rather that in all boldness, as usual, but now more so, Christ would be magnified in Paul's body, whether in life, or in death. Paul knew he would not be ashamed in his suffering for his faithfulness to Christ and Gospel preaching. It would not, and could never be, in vain. The Gospel preaching could never fail to work God's will in the hearts of the hearers. In Paul's body, Christ would be magnified, whether in Paul's release, or in his death at the hands of his persecutors. Either way, Paul would be delivered from the wrath of wicked men. This makes Paul's dilemma greater, because he wins either way, in life, or in dying. Paul realizes that should he die, he would be instantly with Christ, and what joy that would be!

Godly boldness is not of ourselves, or inherent in our ethnic lineage, neither is it a character quality backed by force or violence, but rather is in and through Jesus Christ. Paul exhorts us to prayer. Our prayer is to be continuous, in the Holy Ghost, and with watchfulness and perseverance. It is to be prayer for all the saints, and will include our petitions and supplications, which are supporting, upholding, and asking the Lord for help for all the brethren. Then Paul adds, "and for me." Paul asked the believers to pray for himself, that he would be able to speak boldly. Think of it: Paul desires prayers for more boldness in his Gospel preaching! The one whom Scripture portrays as very bold by the Holy Ghost, seeks supplication by his fellow believers for even more boldness. Paul asks for prayers, that he might be able to make known the mystery of the Gospel. The Gospel is a mystery to the lost, for it is foolishness to them, and while they might understand it, they are unable to trust in it, or believe it unto salvation. Paul did reveal in his epistles the essential help required from the Holy Ghost, to cause the natural man to be able to understand and receive the things of God. Paul also explained how the Gospel operates to save lost men, by the satisfaction of God's justice against poor sinners, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in our place and for our crimes, imputed to Him by God. Christ's blood is the appeasement and satisfaction of God's wrath against us for our sins, and by faith we lay hold of that sacrifice, and God imputes to us Christ's righteousness, making us fit to come into the presence of our holy and infinitely powerful God!

At Iconium, bold Gospel preaching brought about the conversion of many Jews and Gentiles together. This preaching was done by Jewish believers to both Jews and Gentiles. But then, unbelieving Jews tried to shut down Paul's Gospel preaching! They poisoned the minds of some unbelieving Gentiles against Christ. Paul and the brethren didn't stop. For a long time, they continued to preach boldly the Gospel to all the people of Iconium. God honored their faithfulness by giving signs and wonders, to testify to the truth of what they were preaching, even under opposition by lost men. So the city was divided between Jews and Gentiles who believed in Christ, and those who opposed the Gospel. The unbelieving Jews and Gentiles assaulted Paul and other Christians, plotting to abuse and murder them, and trying to stop the spread of the Gospel. Notice the parallel with the murder of Jesus: recall how reprobate Jewish leaders co-opted the Roman tyrants to put our Savior to death on the cross! This cooperation between wicked Jews and Gentiles had been explained by Christ to His disciples beforehand. First, Jesus said, the Jewish rulers would corruptly condemn Him to death. Then secondly, they would turn Him over to the Roman governing authorities, to be mocked, beaten mercilessly, spit upon, and murdered by crucifixion. Sure enough, what Jesus described came to pass: the wicked Jewish leaders condemned Him to death, and the Romans carried it out at the cross. While initially crushed in spirit by this dreadful turn of events, the disciples, soon after Christ's resurrection, recalled that the Scriptures had foretold that lost Gentiles would believe on Jesus also!

Paul's boldness is explicitly credited to the work of the Holy Ghost. An example of Paul's boldness in Gospel preaching is seen in his powerful and provocative sermon at the synagogue in Antioch of Psidia. Paul points out that Jesus was the fulfillment of the promises to the house of David, and that Christ is the long-desired Savior. Not only that, but right here, right now, word of this salvation is preached to you! Paul forcefully asserts that the rulers of Israel falsely condemned the innocent Jesus to death, never realizing that the prophets foretold Christ's death in the place of His sinful people, dying for their sins laid upon Him by God! But the third day, God raised up Christ from the grave, vindicating Him before all the world! Paul then declares glad tidings to his listeners, mostly Jews, but some others as well in the synagogue that day, of how the promise of a Savior, made to the fathers, has been fulfilled by Christ being raised from the dead. Paul then exclaims, "be it known that through this Man, the Savior, is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and the justification of all those who believe on Him, from all things from which you cannot be justified by Moses' law! What Paul has described to these people that day was just that very work of God to provide salvation for His people, proven by the resurrection of Christ from the dead, and yet most of Paul's hearers rejected his preaching, and later tried to shut Paul down from ministry in their town. Indeed, the Gentiles caught wind of Paul's Gospel preaching, and desired Paul to preach it to them as well! A week later, almost the entire city was gathered to hear the good news Paul preached.

Regardless of what certain false teachers claim, as we have mentioned before, the Holy Ghost is powerful to sanctify every sort of believer, and suppress our character flaws for God's glory and our good, regardless of race. Paul's boldness is explicitly credited to the work of the Holy Ghost. He was bold in proclaiming the Gospel even when dangerous, followed by persecution, followed by Paul going elsewhere to preach. When Paul and Barnabas went to Paphos, the local minor ruler, Sergius Paulus, summoned Paul to hear the Gospel. Sergius' friend Barjesus, a sorcerer, interfered with the gospel work. No doubt this wicked man's income would be lost if his friend Sergius turned away from the devil's work and toward Christ. He needed to keep Sergius in Satan's thrall. Once again, Scripture tells us that it was the Holy Ghost in Paul that led him to denounce this wicked man to his face, as a child of the devil, an enemy of righteousness, and a perverter of the ways of the Lord! Then Paul called down judgment against the sorcerer, placing blindness upon him for a while. When Sergius saw what happened, he realized that the so-called "power" of his sorcerer friend was no match for the power of the Holy Ghost. All the benefits he supposed he had in his wicked friend, were worthless in the face of the truth of the gospel! Most people would have declined to confront the friend of the ruler, worrying that it would alienate him from the message, and perhaps even result in a violent reaction against the preacher. But not Paul. We see here a striking example of a boldness that could have been dangerous, but instead, the Spirit moved Sergius to believe the Gospel.

Godly boldness is not inherited, nor comes from some so-called noble or superior lineage. God can and does embolden His people, no matter how lowly or poor or disadvantaged they may be. We were all lost in sin and degradation and humiliation, until Christ cleansed us with His Own precious blood. He has saved us, and placed upon us His nobility and honor, and a portion of His boldness, by the Holy Ghost, for God's glory, and for our great benefit! The apostle Paul is a key example. He was very bold in his persecution of the Lord's people, but at that time he was aligned with the wicked power structure of Israel, the same one that murdered Messiah. But when Jesus confronted Paul on the road, Paul was struck blind. Ananias went to lay hands on Paul in Damascus, and not only was his sight restored, but he was filled with the Holy Ghost. Immediately Paul began preaching Christ's gospel, and that the Lord Jesus is God manifest in the flesh. This drove some of the local Jews into a rage, and they plotted to kill Paul, but Paul escaped over the wall and went to Jerusalem. Instead of piping down, and laying low, Paul started back up again, proclaiming the Lord Jesus, right there in the place where his former mentors and overseers were headquartered. They too plotted to kill Paul, so he left Jerusalem and went to Caesarea. This pattern repeated over and over throughout Paul's ministry: boldness in proclaiming the Gospel even though dangerous, followed by persecution, followed by Paul going elsewhere to preach. So we see that boldness and prudence are in no way incompatible. This is in keeping with Christ's instructions to His people during His ministry.

The Holy Ghost is powerful to sanctify every sort of believer, and suppress our character flaws for God's glory and our good, regardless of race. The Lord makes us brave by His providential care and through His Word to us, and by being with us always. God instructed Joshua to be strong and courageous, because God Himself would never leave Joshua nor forsake him. Paul quotes that same text in calling for the saints to exclaim, that the Lord is our helper, and we shall not fear what man can do to us. This Holy Ghost boldness was well displayed by the disciples from the very first. Joseph of Arimathea was bold to beg Pilate for the body of Jesus, so that He might receive the promised honorable burial in the tomb. Peter's boldness was evident in his confrontational preaching at Pentecost. When the Jewish rulers called Peter and John before the council to rebuke them for healing the lame man in the name of Jesus, they grew bolder still! Acts is clear why this is: because they were filled with the Holy Ghost. This is very striking in view of Peter's denial of Christ at the crucifixion. Peter had before talked big, but was cowed by the words of a servant girl. But now by the Holy Ghost, Peter did not mince words, but rather declared hard words, that he knew would rile up those wicked rulers who had murdered Messiah. Peter threw Christ's warning back into their faces: they had killed God's Son to try to seize the kingdom, rejecting the cornerstone, but God had raised up and exalted Christ to be the cornerstone anyway! Even the wicked rulers marveled that these ignorant and unlearned men had great boldness before them. But they took note, that they had been with Jesus!

The church is being polluted by a form of "our blood, our soil" extreme nationalism, that teaches that God gave America to Anglo Saxon Protestants, but all sorts of other people are invading our country and "ruining our heritage." These false teachers hold even Italians, Greeks, Jews, Hispanics, and Blacks as aliens, who should be excluded as far as possible from America. Often, they advocate discrimination and suppression, claiming a "spiritual basis" for these wicked notions. In the case at hand, the false teacher preaches that all blacks are under "the curse of Ham." But it turns out that Scripture never mentions a curse against Ham, but rather, a curse against one of his four sons, Canaan. Needless to say, Blacks do not descend from Canaan, so the curse against Canaan cannot be used to justify anti-black racism. Furthermore, this false teacher believes that Blacks ought to be made our servants, according to the terms of the imaginary curse of Ham! In fact, he teaches that the curse is actually a command for white people (which he claims are the "true sons of Japheth") to enforce the imaginary curse against Blacks! Meanwhile, he notes that the sons of Japheth were specially blessed by Noah in Genesis 9, which he supposes supports his view that white people are blessed and superior to the offspring of Ham and Shem. His false teaching on these matters is a mass of made up scripture, confusion, and circular argument that is unsupportable from Scripture. We obtain an insight into this false teacher's warped thinking and inability to grasp the logical contradictions of his beliefs, when we read one of his latest ideas.