RIGHTEOUSNESS - Given, and something for which to Hunger and Thirst

"How thoroughly happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for such will be satisfied" (Jesus, Matthew 5:6).

What in the world does that mean?  Better - what did Jesus mean by that?

In a recent teaching, I contended with my audience that our most pressing, most urgent need is righteousness.  Our problem - the God before whom we will stand requires righteousness at the doorway into eternity.  Those who have it "will see His face."  Those who do not will be lost, forever.  That the Scriptures of God make clear.

Righteousness is that quality of character, thought, and action which exactly and consistently conforms to a clear, moral standard.  More briefly, if anyone can always keep God's law, he or she has righteousness.

And therein lies our problem.  None of us have or can get it on our own.  Without some Divine help, we all will step into eternity without the condition which is required to be in God's presence and joys for days without end.  Again, the Scriptures of God make this crystal clear.

THE GOOD NEWS OF DIVINE HELP

The Scriptures of God make something else clear as well, to our great relief.  A thoroughly righteous God knows we don't have righteousness.  Furthermore, He knows we cannot achieve it.  "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).

Yet the good news is that this same God offers what we don't have and what we urgently need freely to us, without cost and apart from personal achievement.  God the Father is eager to do this because God the Son - who was and is righteous - lived a righteous life and then died in our place to pay our sin's penalty.  He cried on the cross, "It is finished."  His in-my-place sacrifice was completed, and the Father proved the sacrifice was sufficient and completed by raising His sacrified Son from the dead.  "He was raised for our justification."

So here is the good news.  I don't have righteousness, and I cannot earn righteousness...but I can be GIVEN Christ's righteousness, by faith; that is, if I will trust in what God has said about what Jesus did for me.  "God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin on my behalf, so that I could become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21).

How about you?  Do you believe this?  Read the previous paragraph again.  Now, I ask you again, do you believe this?  If so, your faith is counted as righteousness.  God, in your believing, gives you the gift of righteousness.

A HUNGER AND THIRST FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS

I believe Jesus meant at least two things when he uttered the teaching quoted in the first line of this piece.

First, Jesus was teaching that every person who longs for God's righteousness to be applied to their life -- and that longing is expressed in faith -- is "satisfied."  The promise of God is simply this - when you believe, God saves.  When you believe in Christ, his death for sin is applied to you, and his righteousness is given to you.  God declares you, in Christ, "righteous."  Romans 5:1 says, "When we are justified (declared righteous by faith), we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Second, Jesus was also teaching that once a person has been "satisfied" by being declared righteous by God, the longing continues.  Such a person wants his/her living to be more and more an expression of the righteousness of God.  Such a person grows in a Christ-likeness of thinking and acting.  A "righteous living" grows.  The declared condition of such a person ("righteous", by faith in Christ)  becomes more and more the daily lifestyle of the person ("right living" by faith).

This is what the writer to the Hebrews Christians meant when he said, "Strive for...the holiness, without which no one will see the Lord"  (Hebrews 12:14).   We might say, "Let your declared-by-God condition, RIGHTEOUS, become more and more your daily-before-God way of living."

Let God's talk about you ("Bill, in Christ, is righteous!") become your walk in the world ("Bill, on the job, lives in a way pleasing to God")

David put it this way - Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable in Thy sight, O God of my salvation.