Or rather, according to this sacrificial logic, we can now expect him to participate in that fellowship of friends as it proceeds on its temporal sojourn. Notice the condition Paul places on participation: ""provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Rom 8:17b). It confirms the call to discipleship in Mark 8:34-9:1. The centurion must now share in Christ’s priestly self-sacrifice. He must be willing to endure the sins of others and risk the loss of his own good for the sake of the society he hopes to share with them. So too he must hope that this imitation will reproduce (however imperfectly) the redeeming and atoning effects of Christ’s decisive sacrifice, of his perfect forbearance. He must hope, in other words, that his forbearance will be a medium of God^ grace, that it will be recognized and received as a gift and thus initiate the redemption of the sinner endured.