We all love the feeling of the word “boldness.” Confidence wells up, we begin being a part of something, and we feel seen. But one concept we often don’t associate with boldness is repentance.

The funny thing is, Scripture talks time and time again about boldness being preceded by repentance. The truth is plain and simple: Boldness for Jesus begins with bold repentance.

Jesus’ ministry began will direct and personal calls for people to repent (see Matthew 4:17 and Luke 13:3), which means to turn away from their sins. Unless they understood the gravity of their sins, they would never understand the gravity of their salvation.

Later on after Jesus ascended and gave His disciples the Great Commission, we see how their repentance and faith gave them the kind of boldness we all crave.

• They proclaimed Christ boldly (Acts 4:31, 28:31)
• Since they had hope, they were bold (2 Cor 3:12)
• They knew God was their helper and there was nothing man could do to them (Heb 13:6)
• God didn’t give them a spirit of fear (2 Tim 1:7)
• They had the boldness to ask the Lord for wisdom (James 1:5)
  

We all have sins that we continue to struggle with, but it’s often easier for us to ignore it or look at the faults in other people. If we truly want to be BOLD for Jesus, we will begin on our knees in humility and repentance over our sins and view the boldness, access, and confidence (Eph 3:12) we have because of Christ’s forgiveness with endless gratitude.