Set aside your old way of living. Take up your new life in Christ. Follow Him.
One day Jesus left the crowds to pray alone. Only his disciples were with him, and he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”
“Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say you are one of the other ancient prophets risen from the dead.”
Then
he asked them, “But who do you say I am?”
Peter
replied, “You are the Messiah sent from God!”
Jesus warned his disciples not to tell anyone who he was. “The Son of Man must suffer many terrible things,” he said. “He will be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He will be killed, but on the third day he will be raised from the dead.”
Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed? If anyone is ashamed of me and my message, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in his glory and in the glory of the Father and the holy angels.” (Luke 9:18-26 NLT) [1]
…
And that message is the very message about faith that we preach: If you
openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him
from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:8-9 NLT) [2]
