These are the words of Jesus.
Matthew 10: 32 14 Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. 33 But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father. 34 "Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. 35 For I have come to set a man 'against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36 and one's enemies will be those of his household.' 37 "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and whoever does not take up his cross 15 and follow after me is not worthy of me. 39 16 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Christians take up their cross and suffer for Christ. Those who declare themselves saved do not. Are they Christians according to Jesus?
So, you are taking this passage to mean that a true Christian must suffer for their sins? Jesus said we are to take up our cross and follow him he does not say in taking up this "cross" we are to suffer for our sins. If that were the case, just what did he suffer on the cross for? We are certainly told to put him before all else, we are told to not hold back anything from him, nor to allow anyone else to hold us back from following him and that is what we are doing exactly when we by faith trust in him as Lord and Savior. We are giving over our lives to his hands and surrendering to his will for us. How better could Jesus have put it?
What has happened over the years is Christians do not experience the kind of suffering that the early church did. Most of us have no idea what true persecution is. We roll up in a ball and cry for mommy whenever somebody says something to us in disagreement, or calls us a name or rejects our company just because we claim the mantle of Christian. In times past, some people, afraid they weren't suffering enough, committed self-mutilation or caused themselves intentional discomfort all so that they could appear pious or so that God would see they really were suffering for Christ. I look at that kind of behavior and can only imagine God shaking his head at that total misunderstanding of what he was actually talking about.
I really do sorrow over people who think like that because it tells me that they have no idea of the joy and love God wants for his children and they miss out on so much of the goodness of him and the easy yoke and light burden that Jesus promises those who follow him. They are easy and light because he is there with us helping us carry it and not behind us in the cart with the whip.