Take Up Your Cross

²³ Then he said to them all, ‘If anyone wants to follow after^[a] me, let him deny himself,^(A) take up his cross daily,^[b] and follow me.^(B)

The Justified Are Reconciled

⁶ For while we were still helpless, at the right time,^(A) Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For rarely will someone die for a just person – though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. ⁸ But God proves^(B) his own love for us^(C) in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

⁵ For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death,^(A) we will certainly also be^[a] in the likeness of his resurrection. ⁶ For we know that our old self^[b](B) was crucified with him^(C) so that the body ruled by sin^[c] might be rendered powerless,^(D) so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, ⁷ since a person who has died^(E) is freed^[d] from sin. ⁸ Now if we died with Christ,^(F) we believe that we will also live with him,

³⁴ Who is the one who condemns?^(A) Christ Jesus is the one who died,^(B) but even more, has been raised;^(C) he also is at the right hand of God^(D) and intercedes for us.^{(E) 35} Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction^(F) or distress or persecution^(G) or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

¹⁷ From now on, let no one cause me trouble, because I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.^(A)