“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” Matthew 5:6
This beatitude follows naturally from the ones before it. The one who is spiritually poor, who mourns over his sin, and who is meek and humble before God will hunger and thirst for the righteousness he lacks. He knows himself to be sinful, impure, and vile before God. He longs to be clothed in the perfect holiness of Christ.
Hunger and thirst are not mere desires–they are desperate cravings. Jesus speaks here of one who longs, not for worldly gain or fleeting pleasures, but for perfect righteousness. This is righteousness he knows that he does not possess in himself.
This is not the cry of the self-righteous Pharisee who boasts in his own morality and goodness. But it is the cry of a person who has learned that he has not one good thing in himself. He now yearns for that perfect righteousness which Jesus wrought out by His perfect life, and credits to the believing sinner.
What is righteousness?
It is first, the “imputed” righteousness of Christ’s perfect obedience and sinless life credited to believing sinners by God. We hunger to be justified before God, not by good works, for we have none–but by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
But it is also the “imparted” righteousness of a holy life–a deep longing to be made practically righteous, to be holy, to walk in obedience, to hate what God hates–and to love what He loves. This hunger is not a passing feeling or emotion, but an abiding and powerful longing.
This continuous hungering and thirsting for righteousness, is an indelible mark of every true believer. The world hungers for wealth, fame, and comfort–but every child of God hungers to be holy!
What a soul-satisfying promise: “They will be filled!”–not partially, not temporarily–but fully and forever with all the unfathomable riches of God’s grace in Christ!
God will not mock the longings He has stirred in the heart. Our hunger to be free from sin, walk in holiness, please our Lord–will one day give way to complete satisfaction. We will awaken in glory, fully conformed to the image of our adorable Savior. The Lord will not fill us with crumbs, but with Himself–the “Bread of Life.” He is the “Living Water” who alone can quench our soul’s deepest thirst. What comfort! What encouragement, as we traverse our pilgrim journey in this poor world of trials and temptations!
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