And if this is how God clothes the wild grass, which is here today and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven, won't he clothe you even more, you people of little faith?

And whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Then he instructed the crowds to sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves and two fish, and looking up to heaven he gave thanks and broke the loaves. He gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

"Woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You cross land and sea to make one convert, and when you get one, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves!

As they were going out, they found a man from Cyrene named Simon, whom they forced to carry his cross.

and saying, "You who can destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are God's Son, come down from the cross!"

"He saved others, but he cannot save himself! He is the king of Israel! If he comes down now from the cross, we will believe in him!

Then he directed them all to sit down in groups on the green grass.

Then Jesus called the crowd, along with his disciples, and said to them, "If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

The soldiers forced a passerby to carry his cross, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country (he was the father of Alexander and Rufus).

save yourself and come down from the cross!"

Let the Christ, the king of Israel, come down from the cross now, that we may see and believe!" Those who were crucified with him also spoke abusively to him.

Then he said to them all, "If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.

And if this is how God clothes the wild grass, which is here today and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven, how much more will he clothe you, you people of little faith!

Whoever does not carry his own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

Besides all this, a great chasm has been fixed between us, so that those who want to cross over from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.'

As they led him away, they seized Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country. They placed the cross on his back and made him carry it behind Jesus.

Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory -- the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father.

For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came about through Jesus Christ.

Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." (Now there was a lot of grass in that place.) So the men sat down, about five thousand in number.

got into a boat, and started to cross the lake to Capernaum. (It had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.)

and carrying his own cross he went out to the place called "The Place of the Skull" (called in Aramaic Golgotha).

Pilate also had a notice written and fastened to the cross, which read: "Jesus the Nazarene, the king of the Jews."

Now standing beside Jesus' cross were his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

this man, who was handed over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you executed by nailing him to a cross at the hands of Gentiles.

With great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was on them all.

Now Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and miraculous signs among the people.

When he came and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with devoted hearts,

When they had accomplished everything that was written about him, they took him down from the cross and placed him in a tomb.

When the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who were speaking with them and were persuading them to continue in the grace of God.

So they stayed there for a considerable time, speaking out courageously for the Lord, who testified to the message of his grace, granting miraculous signs and wonders to be performed through their hands.

From there they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work they had now completed.

On the contrary, we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they are."

but Paul chose Silas and set out, commended to the grace of the Lord by the brothers and sisters.

When Apollos wanted to cross over to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he assisted greatly those who had believed by grace,

But I do not consider my life worth anything to myself, so that I may finish my task and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news of God's grace.

And now I entrust you to God and to the message of his grace. This message is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

Through him we have received grace and our apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles on behalf of his name.

To all those loved by God in Rome, called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

But they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Now to the one who works, his pay is not credited due to grace but due to obligation.

For this reason it is by faith so that it may be by grace, with the result that the promise may be certain to all the descendants -- not only to those who are under the law, but also to those who have the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all

through whom we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of God's glory.

But the gracious gift is not like the transgression. For if the many died through the transgression of the one man, how much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ multiply to the many!

For if, by the transgression of the one man, death reigned through the one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ!

Now the law came in so that the transgression may increase, but where sin increased, grace multiplied all the more,

so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase?

For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace.

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not!

So in the same way at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.

And if it is by grace, it is no longer by works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but to think with sober discernment, as God has distributed to each of you a measure of faith.

And we have different gifts according to the grace given to us. If the gift is prophecy, that individual must use it in proportion to his faith.

But I have written more boldly to you on some points so as to remind you, because of the grace given to me by God

The God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

I always thank my God for you because of the grace of God that was given to you in Christ Jesus.

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel -- and not with clever speech, so that the cross of Christ would not become useless.

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master-builder I laid a foundation, but someone else builds on it. And each one must be careful how he builds.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been in vain. In fact, I worked harder than all of them -- yet not I, but the grace of God with me.

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

For our reason for confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that with pure motives and sincerity which are from God -- not by human wisdom but by the grace of God -- we conducted ourselves in the world, and all the more toward you.

For all these things are for your sake, so that the grace that is including more and more people may cause thanksgiving to increase to the glory of God.

Now because we are fellow workers, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain.

Now we make known to you, brothers and sisters, the grace of God given to the churches of Macedonia,

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that although he was rich, he became poor for your sakes, so that you by his poverty could become rich.

And God is able to make all grace overflow to you so that because you have enough of everything in every way at all times, you will overflow in every good work.

And in their prayers on your behalf they long for you because of the extraordinary grace God has shown to you.

But he said to me, "My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." So then, I will boast most gladly about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may reside in me.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ,

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are following a different gospel --

But when the one who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace was pleased

and when James, Cephas, and John, who had a reputation as pillars, recognized the grace that had been given to me, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we would go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.

I do not set aside God's grace, because if righteousness could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing!

You who are trying to be declared righteous by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace!

Now, brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed.

Those who want to make a good showing in external matters are trying to force you to be circumcised. They do so only to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ.

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.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

to the praise of the glory of his grace that he has freely bestowed on us in his dearly loved Son.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace

even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ -- by grace you are saved! --

to demonstrate in the coming ages the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God;

and to reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by which the hostility has been killed.

if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you,

I became a servant of this gospel according to the gift of God's grace that was given to me by the exercise of his power.

To me -- less than the least of all the saints -- this grace was given, to proclaim to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ

But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

You must let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but only what is beneficial for the building up of the one in need, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Grace be with all of those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

For it is right for me to think this about all of you, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel all of you became partners in God's grace together with me.

He humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death -- even death on a cross!