Wednesday | 11 March 2026
Through the word of the cross, we are invited to receive the fruit of Christ’s finished work as a gift. Highlighting that repentance is a gift given to us from Christ’s finished work, the apostle Peter declared, ‘The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Saviour, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.’ Act 5:30-31.
Applying this principle, the apostle Paul wrote, ‘And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance’. 2Ti 2:24-25. Many other verses, likewise, describe repentance as a gift. This gift is received when we join the fellowship of Christ’s travail through which He accomplished our redemption, fulfilled our repentance, and worked the works of our righteousness as sons of God.
Jesus directed those who desired to be His disciples to take up their cross and follow Him. Mat 16:24. He was saying that we are to respond to the misuse of the Law against us in the same manner as He did, including in the context of conflict in our marriages.
As we consider this principle, we see that Job was asked by Christ to make this same response when Christ joined him to His own sufferings from before the foundation of the world. In the same way that the Father was provoked to submit His Son to the violence expressed through the misuse of the Law by the other law of men, the Son was provoked to submit Job to the abuse of the accuser, Satan. Job 2:3. Job was being asked to take up his cross and follow Christ, and ‘turn the other cheek’. He had to let go of his self-justification and anger and respond to where, and when, Christ suffered for him before creation.
Further Study:
Romans 5
References:
Act 5:30-31
The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Saviour, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.
2Ti 2:24-25
And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth.
Mat 16:24
Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.’
Job 2:3
Then the LORD said to Satan, ‘Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him without cause.’