Enemies of the Cross

Enemies of the Cross Matthew 10:34-39 34 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.35 “For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;36 and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.37 “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.38 “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.39 “He who has found his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake shall find it.

Luke 14:25-35 25 Now great multitudes were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them,26 “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.27 “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.28 “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it?29 “Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him,30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’31 “Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and take counsel whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand?32 “Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks terms of peace.33 “So therefore, no one of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.34 “Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned?35 “It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Romans 6:1-14 1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection,6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin;7 for he who has died is freed from sin.8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.10 For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts,13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.

Galatians 2:19-21 19 “For through the Law I died to the Law, that I might live to God.20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.21 “I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”