The Believer’s First Amendment

Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need   Hebrews 4:16

Confidence – Believers have rights.  But let’s be clear about them.  Not a single one is granted by the government.  All the rights of a believer come from the hand of God and they all depend on the sacrifice of Jesus (cf. Hebrews 10:19).  If you thought that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were yours because of birth, you’re mistaken.  The only rights you have are the ones earned for you by Christ.  But these rights are the most important ones in the entire universe.  Nothing else compares.

This verse explains the believer’s first amendment right.  The word is parrhesia.  It really isn’t about confidence.  It’s about freedom of speech.  The word is constructed from pas (all) and rhesis (the act of speaking).  It means the freedom to express all that I think.  It’s true that I have confidence, but my confidence is based on the fact that Jesus opens the way for me to tell God anything.

In our Western representative republics, we often take this right for granted.  But imagine what this right meant in the first century Roman empire.  Would you have been able to stand before Caesar and say anything you wished?  Could you have done that in front of any king?  Not likely!  Men went to their deaths for merely hinting something displeasing.  To speak my mind was not a safe thing to do.  Now imagine what it would be like to speak freely in front of the Almighty God of creation.  If we truly appreciate the situation, we are much more likely to echo Isaiah:  “Woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips.”  To utter any words at all in the presence of the Holy of holies is to invite immediate judgment.

That’s why this verse is so incredible.  Jesus, the God-man who knows our weaknesses because He was just like us, invites us to speak freely before the throne of the Most High.  In fact, Jesus Himself offers prayers and supplications on our behalf right now before the Father.  You and I have the right to speak our minds.  And God listens!

Is that how you pray?  Do you come with your first amendment right, earned by the Son and granted to you as His servant?  Do you exercise that right by telling God all that you wish?  Or are you cowering before the Lord of the universe, afraid that He will not hear what you have to say?  Are you avoiding difficult topics, ignoring humiliating sins, withholding traumatic emotions?

Every believer (and only believers) have freedom of speech before God.  Have you shared what’s on your mind with confidence?