Blessed to Be A Blessing Lesson 4
Matthew 5: 6. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.
We have learned so much in the few weeks we have been together studying the first part of the Sermon on the Mount, know as the “Beatitudes.
We have learned that the Beatitudes are the first teachings of Jesus, describing the Christian life. They are similar to proverbs in that they describe the condition and the blessing or reward following meeting that condition.
We have discussed the different translations found in the Amplified Bible of the term
“Blessed” and how it is used in two different ways in the nine verses.
I want to just give us a compilation of those two translations for us to keep in mind during the remainder of our study.
Blessed is being filled with an inner sense of joy and peace because we are right with God. Jesus is teaching them the characteristics of their new life and pledging divine rewards for it.
It is an exclamation of the inner joy and peace that comes with being right with God. Happiness may indeed be a part of it; but it is a happiness that transcends what happens in the world around us, a happiness that comes to the soul from being favored by God, by understanding we can be happy and joyous no matter our condition and because we have the grace of God in our lives.
This is a gift of God, yes it is associated with these attitudes of the heart, but always remember you are blessed simply because you belong to Him, you are his child. He loves you and blesses you for that reason and that reason alone.
So far we have learned the we must be “poor in spirit” realizing our emptiness without God and our need for him. We learned we have to realize our sins, and “mourn” them, be truly regretful of them and that these two conditions are not just necessary for entering the Kingdom now, but for living our life as the true new creatures we are once we are born again. Then we learned we have to be “meek”,
humble without pride when we come to Jesus and live that way throughout our lives.
Each of these is a characteristic of our life here as believers.
- Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.
What does it really mean to hunger and thirst? These are generally associated with physical conditions. We hunger and thirst for food and drink.
Interestingly, the term hunger in the original Greek, leans more toward “craving” rather than what I thought of as starving.
Applying this to my own life, I crave two things, generally when I am stressed, chocolate and Mexican food. A strange combination.
So how do I translate that into my spiritual life? I know the one very stressful time in my life, I actually prayed for God to give me a hunger for His word that would not be quenched. And He did. I drove poor Mark crazy waking up in the wee hours of the night, turning on my light and reading God’s word. I could not get it in fast enough.
I actually read the entire Bible in less than 6 months. Then I got another translation and started again! It was the only way my hungry spirit could be satisfied.
Have you ever reached this point. I think it is sad that we have to be so low in our lives that then we start hungering and thirsting for righteousness.
We should always be in this state of “ craving for Christ” and righteousness.
Which brings me to the true meaning of righteousness. The Amplified Bible translates this as “(uprightness and right standing with God). I believe it is so much more.
Isaiah 64: 6. But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
The Amplified Bible says:
6 For we have all become like one who is unclean [ceremonially, like a leper], and all our righteousness (our best deeds of rightness and justice) is like filthy rags or a polluted garment; we all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away [far from God’s favor, hurrying us toward destruction].
So we know we can’t be righteousness without Jesus!
So what is righteousness? One definition is uprightness, justice, blamelessness.
Righteousness is the state of moral perfection required by God to enter heaven.
Ok, right away we know we will never reach moral perfection under God’s standard on our own.
Romans 7: 18. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.
- For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
The Living Bible says: Living Bible
Romans 7:18 I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn I can't make myself do right. I want to but I can't. 19 When I want to do good, I don't; and when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. :20 Now if I am doing what I don't want to, it is plain where the trouble is: sin still has me in its evil grasp.
So how do we attain righteousness? Well, we first have to hunger and thirst for it!
You have to crave it. One thing I have learned is that when you crave chocolate, you won’t be satisfied with anything else.
I think it is interesting, that many diet experts say that when we are hungry, we can actually be thirsty, because studies have shown that we do not drink enough water in on a daily basis.
Wow! So Jesus covered both his bases here, he said “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst!” So see, God understands what we need to be filled spiritually, we need to be both “hungry for the bread of life and thirsty for the water of life”!
He said we would be filled, just as I was filled when I prayed for a hunger for his word!
But back to righteousness. We said it was uprightness, justice, blamelessness.
Righteousness is the state of moral perfection required by God to enter heaven
It is not and never will be about our state of righteousness. We are not righteousness without Jesus Christ Our Lord and Savior. God sent Jesus to die for me, to go to hell for me and to defeat death and the enemy for me. All so that I could become his righteousness and stand before my God, sinless and perfect.
Romans 3: 25. whom God set forth to be a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,
- to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Do you remember that one of the definitions was justify. Righteousness is our justification before a just God. God cannot look on sin, it has to be covered in blood.
That is why on the cross Jesus cried “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?”
He had become total sin and God had to look away. Jesus had never experienced what we experience, the emptiness of no relationship with God until that moment.
Yes, he truly did suffer all things we do, and still remained sinless!.
We are righteous, or right with God, because and only because of Jesus and His blood.
It is not something we practice to get, or an action we do, it is the free gift of God and it only comes on way. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So what is righteousness. It is the result of salvation. It is being justified before a Holy God. It is knowing that our sins are covered in the blood of Jesus and we can stand before our King rightfully and justifiable. We now have that right, because of Jesus.
Let me end with this, we must also seek the righteousness of others.
We cannot only hunger and thirst for our own righteousness, but for others to come to the same place in Christ. We are here to lead others to this point and we must never, never forget that.
Do you remember we discussed mourning for the sins of the world. Well this is the next step. We must hunger and thirst for the righteousness of the world.
John 3: 17. "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
This is why we “hunger and thirst after righteousness.” Because God’s will is that none should perish. Amen!