Lk. 14:27 “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”
1 Pet. 2:24 “He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”
Gal. 6:14 “But may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which* the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
From the office of readings, A Discourse by St. Andrew of Crete:
Had there been no cross, Christ could not have been crucified. Had there been no cross, life itself could not have been nailed to the tree. And if life had not been nailed to it, there would be no streams of immortality pouring from Christ’s side, blood and water for the world’s cleansing. The legal bond of our sin would not be cancelled, we should not have attained our freedom, we should not have enjoyed the fruit of the tree of life and the gates of paradise would not stand open. Had there been no cross, death would not have been trodden underfoot, nor hell despoiled.
Therefore, the cross is something wonderfully great and honourable.
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