“For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope”
Have you ever deeply longed for something?
I have. For instance, as a young man I like to backpack. On one hike, after enduring five days on a diet of trail mix and freeze-dried meals, I walked twenty miles to get a hamburger. Oh, it tasted so good! Afterwards, my shrunken stomach rebelled, and I almost upchucked. i can smile at this memory now.
Of course, there are more serious examples of longing. Some people hope for something their whole lives. In 2014, after thirty years on death row, Henry McCollum walked out of Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina, and thanked God for his release. DNA evidence had proven him innocent. How he must have yearned for freedom every day. He hugged his mother, and she thanked God and said, “My boy free!” It’s amazing to me that Henry McCollum spent as much time in prison as I did in my nursing career.
The Bible says all creation is longing for something. The whole of creation, “groans” for release from the curse of our sin and freedom from death and decay. As Christians, we know from the Word this earth is not our home, and we are promised a heavenly reward with God, a complete and eternal redemption.
“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently” (Romans 8:22-25, NIV.)
The promise will be worth the wait. So, we wait, and hope. Jesus spoke of longing as “hunger and thirst.”
He said in the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6, NASB.)
The Amplified version translates this verse, “Blessed [joyful, nourished by God’s goodness] are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness [those who actively seek right standing with God], for they will be [completely] satisfied” (Matthew 5:6, AMP.)
To help me understand Matthew 5:6 better, I decided to break it into parts. First, as the verse above says, “blessed means “joyful, nourished by God’s goodness. Put me down for that kind of contentment any day! It sounds a lot better than a hamburger!
The next part of Matthew 5:6 refers to “hunger and thirst.” This phrase reminds me of David’s prayer to God when King Saul sought to kill him in the desert. David prayed, “O God, you are my God, and I long for you. My whole being desires you; like a dry, worn-out, and waterless land, my soul is thirsty for you” (Psalm 63:1, GNT.) This “hunger and thirst” represents an intense longing, and David’s deep need for God to touch his soul.
With this in mind, how may the “righteousness” Jesus referred to in Matthew 5:6 be described? Jerry Bridges, in his book, The Blessings of Humility, defines righteousness: “Basically, it is obedience to the moral commands of the Bible, as the Holy Spirit brings them to our attention” (Jerry Bridges, The Blessings of Humility, p.46, © 2016.)
Matthew 5:6 tells us we have a hope, a guaranteed expectation: “for they will be satisfied.” This Hope is mentioned in the both the Old and New Testaments.
The Old Testament says, “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5, KJV, my emphasis.)
The New Testament says, “He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. Because of His grace He made us right in His sight and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life” (Titus 3:5-7, NLT.)
Jerry Bridges comments about this “new life” in his book: “We are absolutely dependent on the Holy Spirit to work in us Himself and to enable us to work. We cannot make one inch of progress toward experiential righteousness without His divine enablement” (Jerry Bridges, The Blessings of Humility, p.47, © 2016.) Our Hope rests in Christ Himself.
When we long for Christ’s perfect righteousness, we are blessed, and we will be (completely) satisfied when He comes again to gather His church.
When I came to know he Lord as Savior, I received the Holy Spirit as my Helper and Comforter. He freed me from the power of sin, but I know I’m still under the curse of sin, because I struggle in this life, and my efforts fall far short perfect righteousness of Christ. But I want to move forward in my relationship with the Savior. I want to know more of Him, to live closer to Him, to talk to Him daily in prayer, and to love and please Him more. I know that Christ has changed my heart, because He blessed me with these longings.
As I stated above, I fall far short of the perfect righteousness of Christ in this life, and that’s why Jesus said I’m blessed when I’m “poor in spirit,” knowing how much I’ve been forgiven through Christ’s sacrifice.
Believers can rejoice in His mercy and goodness, and those who hunger to live in obedience to God, “will be satisfied.” The Apostle John described this satisfaction when he wrote, “My dear friends, we are now God’s children, but it is not yet clear what we shall become. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He really is” (I John 3:2, GNT.)
Pastor Colin Smith, of The Orchard Evangelical Free Church, in Chicago, puts this truth very eloquently, “The holiness begun in you in this life, will be complete in you in the presence of Jesus, and you will sin no more. When you see Christ, you will be like Him (1 John 3). Sin will no longer be in you, or in the people around you. There will be a new heaven and a new earth; it will be the home of righteousness, and all who hungered and thirsted for righteousness will be there.” (Colin Smith, openthebible.org, “Blessed Are Those Who Hunger for Righteousness,” 10/28/2012.)
A prayer from A. W. Tozer (“The Pursuit of God,” p. 15, Christian publications, 1982) reads:
O God, I have tasted Your goodness,
and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more.
I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace.
I am ashamed of my lack of desire.
O God, the Triune God, I want to want you.
I long to be filled with longing;
I thirst to be made more thirsty still.
Show me Your glory, I pray that I may know You indeed.
Begin in mercy a new work of love within me.
Say to my soul ‘Rise up my love and come away.’
Then give me the grace to rise and follow You,
up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
Selah