34 Then Jesus called the crowd to Him along with His disciples, and He told them, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.

35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and for the gospel will save it.

36 What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?

37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

— Mark 8:34-37

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

— 2 Corinthian 5:21

7 But whatever things were gain to me, these things I have counted as loss because of Christ.

8 More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ

— Philippians 3:7-8

Thoughts on Today’s Reading

Grace, mercy and salvation from Christ to you.

When we, believers, fail to understand the costliness of following Christ, that leads to a superficial, shallow vies of what He requires. We ignore the fact that believers follow their Savior to the cross when we expect God to only bestow blessings and orchestrate a smooth path. Elevating personal autonomy and self-satisfaction over self-denial and sacrifice misrepresent the essence of following Christ.

The path to blessing involves sacrifice. The magnitude of God’s love for sinners, seen through Christ’s death on their behalf, transforms any loss suffered on earth into an eternal gain. The glamorous sparkle of this world cannot compare with eternal riches in Christ. The ongoing call to self-denial in believers’ lives exposes our love affair with self and beckons us to pursue someone and something greater. Jesus is worth whatever following Him costs.