Jesus laid down his life for us, and we are invited to do the same for him.

To be one with us, he left heaven to come in the most awkward fashion possible into our planet, as a vulnerable baby with a poor family in an occupied nation. And he left the same way, publicly accused and hanging naked on a cross.

We are called to give up our comforts, our opinions, our passions, our understanding, our reputations, even our very lives. This is how we become one with him.

It seems to me something like marriage. We each have to let go of the life we thought we were going to have to join intimately with another and have a new life we could have only dreamed of.

Here’s my summary of what the New Testament says about this by chapter. We are not following a religion of incremental improvement. The way of the cross is to give up everything and get resurrected.

Matthew

• 1 He did as the angel of the Lord commanded him
• 2 Fell down and worshipped him
• 3 And they were baptized by him in the river
• 4 Immediately they left the boat and their father
• 5 Love your enemies, pray for your persecuters
• 6 Do not store up treasures on earth
• 7 Enter by the narrow gate
• 8 Follow me, leave the dead to bury their own
• 9 “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.
• 10 Children will have their parents put to death
• 11 Hidden from the wise and understanding
• 12 The Son of Man will be three days in the earth
• 13 Went and sold all that he had and bought it
• 14 Give me the head of John the Baptist
• 15 Honors me with their lips, but their heart is far
• 16 Whoever would save his life will lose it
• 17 And they will kill him
• 18 Tear out your eye and throw it away
• 19 We have left everything and followed you
• 20 They will condemn him to death
• 21 –
• 22 Render to God the things that are God’s
• 23 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled
• 24 They will put you to death
• 25 I was afraid, and I hid your talent in the ground
• 26 Yet not as I will, but as you will
• 27 Shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!”
• 28 –

Mark

• 1 He called, and they left their father in the boat
• 2 “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.
• 3 Whoever does the will of God is my brother
• 4 Cares of the world choke the word
• 5 –
• 6 He went and beheaded him in the prison
• 7 You reject God for your tradition!
• 8 Gain the whole world but forfeit his soul
• 9 And they will kill him
• 10 You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have
• 11 Were seeking a way to destroy him
• 12 Out of her poverty put in everything she had
• 13 Children will have their parents put to death
• 14 Betrayed into the hands of sinners
• 15 And they cried out again, “Crucify him.”
• 16 Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified

Luke

• 2 I can depart in peace, for I’ve seen salvation
• 3 Proclaiming a baptism of repentance
• 4 Worship the Lord and him only shall you serve
• 5 Leaving everything, he rose and followed him
• 6 Love your enemies, expect nothing in return
• 7 She wet my feet with tears and wiped with hair
• 8 My family are those who obey the word
• 9 Let him deny himself and take up his cross daily
• 10 Love the Lord your God with all your heart
• 11 You tithe, but neglect justice and love
• 12 Seek his kingdom; these things will be added
• 13 Strive to enter through the narrow door
• 14 If anyone does not hate his own life
• 15 I am no longer worthy to be called your son
• 16 Exalted among men is an abomination to God
• 17 Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it
• 18 Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor
• 19 If I have defrauded anyone, I restore it fourfold
• 20 Render to God the things that are God’s
• 21 She gave all that she had to live on
• 22 Seeking how to put him to death
• 23 But they kept shouting, “Crucify, crucify him!”
• 24 Delivered to sinful men and crucified

John

• 1 Heard him say this, and they followed Jesus
• 2 He didn’t entrust himself to them
• 3 He gave his only Son
• 4 The disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat”
• 5 The Jews were seeking all the more to kill him
• 6 Not to do my own will but of him who sent me
• 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me
• 8 Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin
• 9 And they cast him out
• 10 Good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep
• 11 Let us also go, that we may die with him
• 12 Whoever loses his life will find it
• 13 Knew that his hour had come to depart
• 14 A little while and the world will see me no more
• 15 I chose you, the world hates you
• 16 Whoever kills you will think he is serving God
• 17 They are not of the world, just as I am not
• 18 If this world, my servants would fight
• 19 They cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!”
• 20 Mary stood weeping outside the tomb
• 21 By what kind of death he was to glorify God

Acts

• 1 It is not for you to know the times and seasons
• 2 You crucified and killed
• 3 You killed the Author of life
• 4 We cannot but speak of what we have seen
• 5 We must obey God rather than men
• 6 We  devote ourselves to prayer and the word
• 7 They cast him out of the city and stoned him
• 8 Your heart is not right before God
• 9 Is not this the man who made havoc?
• 10 They put him to death, hanging him on a tree
• 11 I said “no”, but the Spirit told me to go
• 12 He killed James with the sword
• 13 They shook off the dust from their feet
• 14 Stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city
• 15 Men who have risked their lives for Jesus
• 16 Do not harm yourself, we are all here
• 17 –
• 18 –
• 19 Who practiced magic arts burned their books
• 20 I do not account my life of any value
• 21 I am ready for prison or to die for Jesus
• 22 Since I could not see, I was led by the hand
• 23 Oath to not eat nor drink till they killed him
• 24 A clear conscience toward both God and man
• 25 I do not seek to escape death
• 26 All could be like me, except for the chains
• 27 Unless these men stay, you cannot be saved
• 28 No reason for the death penalty in my case

Romans

• 1 –
• 2 His praise is not from man but from God
• 3 Our boasting is excluded by the law of faith
• 4 When he was as good as dead
• 5 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person
• 6 Consider yourselves dead to sin
• 7 You have died to the law
• 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God
• 9 Wish that I were accursed for their sake
• 10 Seeking to establish their own righteousness
• 11 I alone am left, and they seek my life
• 12 Do not be conformed to this world
• 13 Put on Jesus, make no provision for the flesh
• 14 Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin
• 15 –
• 16 –

1 Corinthians

• 1 We preach Christ crucified
• 2 The wisdom of this age is doomed
• 3 –
• 4 We are like the scum of the world
• 5 Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed
• 6 You were bought with a price
• 7 Live as though the appointed time is short
• 8 If food makes him stumble, I will never eat meat
• 9 Exercises self-control in all things
• 10 “All things are lawful,” but not all are helpful
• 11 –
• 12 We were all baptized into one body
• 13 Have not love, I am nothing
• 14 –
• 15 What’s sown doesn’t come to life unless it dies
• 16 –

2 Corinthians

• 1 Do I make plans according to the flesh?
• 2 –
• 3 –
• 4 Death is at work in us, but life in you
• 5 No longer live for themselves but for him
• 6 Dying and behold, we live
• 7 You are in our hearts, to die together
• 8 Though he was rich, he became poor
• 9 Whoever sows bountifully will reap bountifully
• 10 Who commends himself is not approved
• 11 I humbled myself so you could be exalted
• 12 I fear that God may humble me before you
• 13 We cannot do anything against the truth

Galatians

•  Am I seeking the approval of God or man?
• 2 I have been crucified with Christ
• 3 No is justified before God by the law
• 4 Would have gouged out your eyes for me
• 5 The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit
• 6 The world has been crucified to me

Ephesians

• 1 –
• 2 It is the gift of God, not a result of works
• 3 I am the very least of all the saints
• 4 Put off your old self
• 5 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness
• 6 Doing the will of God from the heart

Philippians

• 1 To live is Christ and to die is gain
• 2 Becoming obedient to the point of death
• 3 Becoming like him in his death
• 4 I have learned to be content in every situation

Colossians

• 1 –
• 2 You died to the elemental spirits of the world
• 3 Put to death what is earthly in you
• 4 –

1 Thessalonians

• 1 –
• 2 We speak, not to please man
• 3 We live if you are standing fast in the Lord
• 4 –
• 5 Christ who died for us

2 Thessalonians

• 1 –
• 2 –
• 3 Not because we don’t have the right…

1 Timothy

• 1 –
• 2 Gave himself as a ransom for us all
• 3 –
• 4 Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths
• 5 Self-indulgent are dead even while they live
• 6 Let the rich take hold of that which is truly life

2 Timothy

• 1 –
• 2 No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits
• 3 –
• 4 Demas is in love with this present world

Titus

• 1 But they deny him by their works
• 2 Renounce ungodliness and worldly passions
• 3 –

Philemon

• 1 Knowing that you will do even more than I say

Hebrews

• 1 –
• 2 Pay much closer attention to what we heard
• 3 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion
• 4 Do not harden your hearts
• 5 –
• 6 If it bears thorns and thistles, it will be burned
• 7 –
• 8 –
• 9 –
• 10 Joyfully accepted plundering of your property
• 11 They were strangers and exiles on the earth
• 12 Resisted to the point of shedding your blood
• 13 Keep your life free from love of money

James

• 1 Rich fade away in the midst of their pursuits
• 2 He offered up his son Isaac on the altar
• 3 Do not have selfish ambition in your hearts
• 4 Friends of the world are enemies of God
• 5 You have lived on the earth in self-indulgence

1 Peter

• 1 The futile ways inherited from your forefathers
• 2 Be subject for the Lord’s sake
• 3 Christ, being put to death in the flesh
• 4 Whoever has suffered has ceased from sin
• 5 Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility

2 Peter

• 1 I know the putting off of my body will be soon
• 2 Whatever overcomes a person, enslaves
• 3 Be found without spot or blemish

1 John

• 1 In him is no darkness at all
• 2 Do not love the world or the things in the world
• 3 We ought to lay down our lives for brothers
• 4 –
• 5 Little children, keep yourself from idols

2 John

• 1 –

3 John

• 1 Accepting nothing from the Gentiles

Jude

• 1 Hating even the garment stained by the flesh

Revelation

• 1 –
• 2 Be faithful unto death
• 3 Reputation of being alive, but you are dead
• 4 –
• 5 Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
• 6 Until their fellow servants, who were to be killed
• 7 Washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb
• 8 –
• 9 The rest of mankind did not repent
• 10 –
• 11 Their dead bodies will lie in the street
• 12 Have not loved their lives even unto death
• 13 With the sword must he be slain
• 14 Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord
• 15 Who will not fear, O Lord,  your name?
• 16 They did not repent and give him glory
• 17 The blood of the martyrs of Jesus
• 18 In her was found the blood of prophets
• 19 –
• 20 Souls of those who had been beheaded
• 21 But nothing unclean will ever enter it
• 22 Let them take the water of life without price