Hunger & Thirst

Mt 5:6, “Blessed are they which do hunger and do thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

One should note that in order for anyone to “hunger and thirst after righteousness,” they must first be able to come to the realization that they are void the righteousness that God will accept. This is a huge obstacle for many in the world today, and unfortunately for many in the church as well.

As a result of the fall, man is faced with the consequences of the curse that we inherited from our first parents thousands of years ago. We’ll remind the reader that Adam was cast out and separated from God’s presence, his work would now be hard labor and not mere leisure. He would also bring forth corrupt fruit, as well as having lost dominion over the earth. If we re-examine the first curse mentioned, this is the one that is so closely linked to righteousness. What this "separation by sin" from the Lord means, is that the death that sin brought with it stripped away our Oneness with God. Along with that separation came a loss of God's Righteousness in our own lives too. So we’re separated from God and void of righteousness.

What is righteousness? Righteousness is the exact opposite of sin. Sin is the reciprocal of righteousness. One cannot be partially sinful and partially righteous. We’re either sinful or we are righteous, there is no gray area and no in between. This seems to be an area that the church gets very confused about. There are many Christians that are saved, but they are not sure if they are considered "righteous" before God. On the other side, there are many unsaved people that believe that they are "righteous," but only by their own definition of righteousness. A sinner's self-proclaimed righteousness would actually vary from person to person, so the "definition" of righteousness would not remain a constant, but would be a changing variable. This is obviously not a standard that anyone can live by. Therefore, we can conclude that the only true definition of righteous, should be what God calls righteous and by His standard. Our next question should be then, “What does God call Righteous, and by what standard are we able to measure ourselves?”



OUR OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS

The Moral Law is also known as the Ten Commandments that were given to Moses by God in the desert at Mt. Sinai. This is the only “moral code” that has stood the test of thousands of years. We’re not going to get into an in depth discussion about the Law right now, but we will be covering some things later, regarding believers and the Law. We brought it up for this reason: The Moral Law was sent to show us the standard of Righteousness in the sight of a Just and Holy God. It could not be broken, not in thought, word, or deed. Not only was it never to be broken, one could not offend in even one area. So if someone in their entire lifetime had ever even thought about lying, by God’s standard of righteousness, they broke it. It was designed to define God’s stardard and then to show us that we don’t measure up. This way, we would see that we can’t in our own selves obey it and we would look for the one who had, (Jesus). What this means is that all men are naturally "guilty," of not living up to God’s prestine standard of righteousness. Some folks have a hard time grasping what we have just shared, so we have provided some scriptures that define all of “unsaved” men:

Rom 3:10 “There is none righteous, no, not one.”

Ps 14:1-3 “There is none that does good…..They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that does good, no, not one.”

Jer 17:9 “The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, who can know it.”

Mt 19:17 & Mk 10:18 “There is none good but God.”

These are not the most favorable accusations that have been made upon the human race, however distasteful they may be, the truth still remains that there is nothing good in unregenerate man. He seeks his own, not the will of God. In fact, unsaved man doesn’t care about anyone or anything, but himself. The well-known phrase that states, “looking out for number one,” that is the motto of one that has never been truly touched by God.

In referring back to the words of Jesus when He said, “...they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness,” it is when we get to this place where our lives is when we are able to resolve that there is internal dilemma that only God can fix, it is then that we reach for our only possible solution: Jesus Christ and what He did at Calvary.

Jesus also stated that, “the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but Righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Rom 14:17). We found it amazing that the Lord has lead us to these scriptures that spoke about righteousness, while also mentioning “meat and drink;” of which we just covered in our last chapter on communion and identification with Christ.

In Mt 6, Jesus speaks makes mention in verse 31, “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or What shall we drink? Or Wherewithal shall we be clothed?” The most familiar interpretation that we hear on this scripture pertains to our basic needs in life such as food, shelter, clothing, etc. What if perhaps there is an even deeper meaning hidden within this simple sentence? What would it mean if we interpreted another way, so that we could understand what Christ is saying in a natural way about spiritual things? What if Christ isn’t just speaking pertaining to our natural body, but rather to our spiritual man, which is Him alive in us? It could then read:

“Take no thought for your life (for your life is hidden in Christ, you are dead, but He is alive in you). Think not about what you should put in your belly (because His Body being broken for us is our meat), or what we shall drink (for our refreshing comes in knowing that all of our sins, even the ones we are committing and might commit in the future are washed away by the blood of the Lamb). Or what shall we be clothed with (what we physically wear on our bodies is only the outward appearance, but since we now wear His Righteousness, we are no longer naked before God).

In Mt 6:32 Jesus speaks regarding our physical food, drink and clothing are “what the Gentiles seek,” He is using the term “Gentiles” to describe those that are unsaved, not only those that were not Jewish at the time in which He spoke. We know that Christ is not talking here about natural needs, but rather spiritual needs because he then makes this statement in verse 33, “But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness (that which belongs to Christ, given to us when we believe on Him and are saved); and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Through this entire chapter, Christ is making reference to who we are “in Christ,” once we have received Him into our hearts and lives. If we are continually fed the Message of Christ’s “Finished Work,” then we are able to walk through life spiritually satisfied, knowing that through Calvary Christ fulfilled all righteousness and then placed it within us when we got saved.



WWJD?

Most of us have seen the bracelets and read the writings on the “What Would Jesus Do,” campaign that has been going around the world. We present this thought to the reader and it goes along with what we discussed a few moments ago when we mentioned the sinner’s definition of righteousness. Just as each and every person that has never known what the Ten Commandments are would have their own idea as to what God would call “righteous” in His sight, the same is true for every believer that has never understood what the Finished Work of Christ is and how it is to work in their life. What we mean by that statement is this: We cannot try to behave in the manner in which we think that Christ would, which is the way that most Christians approach having right behavior. If that were the case then the Christian that thinks that God hates them would treat people more hatefully than one that understands His love for them. The definition of ”what Jesus would do” would vary from person to person.

Jesus also stated in Mt 6:27 that we cannot add to our length of life simply by thinking about it. In Jer 23:6 the prophet refers to Christ as, “The Lord our Righteousness.” This should be the standard by which we live, that He is the only and yet capable “Fulfiller” of all righteousness in us.

Let’s return back to our original piece of scripture that we started this chapter with: Mt 5:6 “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” We want to talk now about the parts that say, “blessed” and “for they shall be filled.” These are crucial for every believer to understand, without a proper understanding of what we are about to share it will be very difficult to live the overcoming and victorious life that Jesus died to give us.

We first need to ask this question of the reader: “Have you since your salvation experience longed for the Lord in such a way that it hurt like you were dying of hunger and thirst?” The answer of any true believer should be “Yes!” Even David cried in the Psalm that as the deer pants after the water brook, so his soul does long after the Lord.” The answer is most likely yes to our question, but did the reader know that the feeling of hungering and thirsting after Him is not actually living a victorious life in Christ?

In Jn 6:35, Jesus exclaimed, “I am the Bread of Life, he that comes to Me, shall never hunger; and he that believes on Me shall never thirst.” Is the reader confused? We were, as sought the Lord as to why we have felt void of Him, when He clearly states here that we never should feel that way!

The problem is that most of us hunger and thirst for righteousness after we come to Christ, because we aren’t honestly aware of what God really handed us when we got saved. If we don’t know what we have, then we can’t access it in a way that it will work properly for us. It’s like someone calling us on the phone and congradulating us on the million dollars they have put into our account for us. If we never think to ask where this account is located, then we can’t access the money that someone gave us to bless us with. If we can’t access it, then the blessing becomes a frustration rather than a blessing.

In the back of every failing Christian’s mind is the thought that what they are experiencing in their daily life should actually be better than what they have. We all know that Jesus doesn’t want us to fail and that we perhaps should not be missing the mark of perfection, yet when we miss it we can become increasingly discouraged. Some get so discouraged that they actually give up altogether, realizing that they do not have the power to live the life that they should be.

But what if we told you not only where this “account” is, and that it contains multiple endless blessings in it! Your answer to where the account full of blessings, is in the Finished Work of Christ and the way to access this account is to have proper identification. The identification that we hold up in front of the bank teller, is the one that says, “The Bride of Christ.”

We’re re-introducing the themes of being Christ’s Bride and the identification with Him because therein is the key to a life full of joy and victory. The Word says that the “Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Rom 14:17).

We began this chapter by stating and scripturally proving that we are not righteous within ourselves. Along with our depravity with being morally accepted by God, we find that there is one that came that did meet that mark of perfection. It is then by our understanding that when we received Christ, we died. Our old man, the one who sins and is prone to sinful acts is dead. But not only did we die, Christ is alive. It was in the grave of our endless attempts at earning our way into God’s perfection that we learned it wasn’t a grave, but rather a womb. Out of that womb we were born into the world as a New Creation in Christ Jesus. We are now identified as “in Christ” and no longer “your name goes here”.

When we find ourselves faced with our own unrighteousness and sinful acts, we must realize that the old man is dead, It’s hard to believe this when we are forced to see his/her horrifying ungodliness. We don’t want to behave in an ungodly manner because we love the Lord. This is the place in which we deny that the old man is alive and look unto Jesus, who is the Author and Finisher of our faith. We are no longer forced to earn God’s love by our own merit, but by the work that Christ did in our stead. When we realize that our filthy rags of righteousness are forever thrown away and replaced with His white robe of righteousness, we are better able to wear the garment in which we died to give us. He traded our sinful self for His Perfects Self. Though our sins be red as scarlet, we are now made white as snow.