“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6)
Two weeks ago we looked at hunger and thirst as desires of the soul and how this reflects the true desires of the believing soul. Christ solemnly warns Christians about being lukewarm. Last week we looked at the object of the hunger and thirst. In Matthew 5:6 that object is righteousness. In the context of the Sermon on the Mount I tried to set out that this righteousness is behavioral. Within the context of the Sermon on the Mount there is no mention of the righteousness of Christ given as a free gift and there are several references to acts of righteousness. So we concluded that the believer or the blessed person is one that hungers and thirsts after acts of righteousness.
However, we saw problems that arose with that interpretation. In one sense there is no question about it from the context itself, but there is one question from the text and one theological issue as well. The first beatitude (blessed are the poor in spirit) seems to be in conflict with a person hungering and thirsting after righteousness. If, as the first beatitude teaches, I have no righteousness and no way to obtain it, then how is it that I am to hunger and thirst after that which I can in no way obtain? The theological issue that arises is how am I justified apart from works and by the imputed righteousness of Christ and yet I am to hunger and thirst after acts of righteousness.
First, the issue from the context: If I have no righteousness and no way to obtain it, then how am I to hunger and thirst after it? We need to look at the question and ask if the two points are really the same. In the first beatitude the issue is that of being righteous before God on our own merits. Clearly that is something that is not possible since earning merit would bring God under obligation to the creature. So if that is the case, there is no way of obtaining merit before God. Now we can understand that point and it is very clear in the issue of justification by grace alone through faith alone (apart from works). No human being can earn merit from God. But is that necessarily a contradiction with the fourth beatitude? The first beatitude only contradicts the fourth beatitude if the fourth beatitude is speaking of hungering and thirsting after a type of righteousness that merits anything from God.
What we must do is to think carefully through the biblical information and be wary of equivocation as seen from the previous paragraph. We must receive what Scripture says about each verse and yet move carefully in ways that keep us from the landmines of heresy. Man is dead in his sins and trespasses and cannot do one good thing of himself (Ephesians 2:1-3), yet the Pharisees tried to do works of righteousness to bring God under obligation. Paul was locked in mortal combat with that. We know that Ephesians 2:4-10 clearly shows that man is saved by grace apart from works so that no man can boast. Romans 3:24-31 demonstrates that salvation is by grace alone and merit cannot enter into that at all. So the Bible is quite clear that man is poor in spirit with no righteousness of his own and also has no way of obtaining righteousness before God. The Law was never given as a way for man to be saved. Man was always meant to be saved by grace through faith and not works or merit.
But how is it that we are to pursue righteousness and yet we cannot obtain merit by it? What sense is there in pursuing righteousness if it does not obligate God to do anything? The answer to this and the answer to the theological question are essentially the same. So let us set out the theological question. In reality the theological question is really in the contextual question. We know that man is declared just Christ’s work on the cross and the imputed righteousness of Christ. Romans 4:1-16 declares Abraham was justified through faith and that it is the imputed righteousness of Christ alone is the basis for anyone to be justified. We know from that Paul believed in that righteousness alone and yet he sought to share in the sufferings of Christ (Phil 3:8-11). Paul hungered after Christ and counted all but rubbish in order that he might have Christ. However, not by a righteousness of his own.
Let us look at three examples. God is perfectly righteous, yet He always acts in perfect righteousness. This is an attribute of God and is an aspect of His holiness. It is His doing what is right in all cases and in all that He does. It is the activity of God in being like God since God is the standard of righteousness. A hunger and thirst for righteousness is a hunger and thirst for the life of God in us and for that life to be expressed. It is not an attempt to obtain righteousness for self, but to express the righteousness of God in love. What is the connection between seeking for righteousness and seeking God who is righteous? If we are seeking righteousness for self, we are essentially seeking self from self-love. If we are seeking righteousness as a way of seeking God and His glory, then we are using self for what it was created for which is to glorify God.
Second, Christ was perfectly righteous, yet He pursued it. In one sense He was earning righteousness for His people, but in another sense He was the representative of His people and He needed to live a perfect life in order for them to be declared righteous. But the real issue is that He was righteous and He lived a life that was motivated by a perfect love for God. That was seen in His hungering and thirsting after righteousness. The third example, acts of righteousness, flow from the example of Christ. While the Pharisees did acts of righteousness for selfish reasons, Jesus practiced and gave us the Lord’s Prayer. While prayer is an act of righteousness, it earns no merit for salvation. Prayer was not given to us as a work for salvation, but is how believers out of love seek God and His glory in the world. Those that have the imputed righteousness of Christ are freed from seeking merit and to seek the display of His righteousness in the world. Imputed righteousness leads to hungering after acts of righteousness.
Again, being justified by Christ alone frees the soul from seeking merit. It frees the soul from bondage to self so that the soul may work and desire God and His glory from love. In a very real sense a human being hungering and thirsting after righteousness is simply hungering and thirsting after the display of God’s righteousness in the world. There is no true righteousness apart from God and He puts forth His righteousness in Christ. It is the life of Christ in a person that gives the hunger and thirst for righteousness. We must always remember that man does not do for God, but it is God doing for Himself through man. In pursuing righteousness, then, man is pursuing the glory of God. But in reality it is the glory of God dwelling in man that is shining in and through man. It is God communicating and externalizing His own glory through man so that God may have pleasure in the display of His own glory and that man may enjoy God inwardly as he is participating in the divine life (II Peter 1:4).
We must, therefore, see hungering and thirsting after righteousness as something very different from man being good. It is man’s desire to share in the life of God and to put the righteousness of God on display. It is an aspect of living to the glory of God in that the glory of God is the display of the beauty of God. In hungering and thirsting after righteousness in truth there is the display of the glory of God, that is, the beauty of His righteous character. What can be a standard of righteousness, after all, than that of the character of God? Can anything be righteous other than seeking the glory of God in the world? It should be obvious, then, that this hungering and thirsting for righteousness has to be linked with the glory of God as we should not seek anything that is not to the glory of God. If we seek righteousness in a way that is not to the glory of God it is nothing more than self-righteousness. Hungering and thirsting after righteousness, therefore, must be seen within certain parameters in order for it to fit within the Great Commandment of loving God with all of our being rather than love for self.
II Corinthians 3:18 shows this too. It is in beholding His glory that we are transformed into that image from one degree of glory to another. That is not pursuing it according to works, but rather it is in beholding that glory that God works in us to become like His glory. That is pursuing true righteousness which is to be like God in manifesting His glory. It is to pursue God according to the true nature of the Law which is a reflection of His glory in love. To pursue the Law in an effort to become righteous is self-centered and based on selfishness and as such is not love. Whatever is done externally to keep the Law in that way is not out of love and is condemned by the Law. The only way to keep the Law in truth is to see it as a reflection of the glory and character of God and to pursue Him out of love and to be like Him in love. The Pharisees tried to keep the Law out of love for self and failed miserably. The only way to keep the Law is as the New Covenant sets out which is to have God work it in us. In striving to love God by the love that He works in us, we are not obtaining self-righteousness but are pursuing a true righteousness which He works in us. In that it is all of grace. So we hunger and thirst after righteousness which is a desire for His glory to be manifested which is really His grace in us. There is no merit in this at all.
Since joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, we can be quite safe in assuming that whatever else Jesus means His teaching on blessedness and happiness are not apart from the work and fruit of the Spirit in working the joy of God in human souls that seek Him for Himself rather than seek for other things. Since all of this is of God and by the work of the Spirit, we can see how a soul that is justified by Christ alone can indeed hunger and thirst after righteousness. It is what the soul has been saved for. In fact, it is the justified soul alone that will hunger and thirst after righteousness without trusting in anything but the righteousness of Christ. This may not make sense to those who love their own works and merit, but to those that have been delivered from living for self to the kingdom of the Beloved this is the delight of their souls. It is the desire and love of the soul to pursue His glory which is what righteousness really is.
God Loves... Himself 
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