Cost of Discipleship Pt 43- Hunger and Thirst!

Chapter 6 - The Beatitudes


Mat_5:6  Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.


Bonhoeffer- 'Not only do the followers of Jesus renounce their rights, they renounce their own righteousness too. They get no praise for their achievements or sacrifices. They cannot have righteousness except by hungering and thirsting for it (this applies equally to their own righteousness and to the righteousness of God on earth), always they look forward to the future righteousness of God, but they cannot establish it for themselves. Those who follow Jesus grow hungry and thirsty on the way. They are longing for the forgiveness of all sin, for complete renewal, for the renewal too of the earth and the full establishment of God's law.'


My thoughts- Renouncing our own righteousness.


I read that and I think of how we all seem to want to have righteousness in ourselves. We want to be perceived as having some inherent goodness, rightness that stems from our own decision to be righteous.


(Google search - definition of righteous)-


'Synonyms of righteous- just, right, upright, rightful, fair,  honest.


1. (of a person or conduct) Morally right or justifiable; virtuous.
2. Perfectly wonderful; fine and genuine.'


We have this image embedded in our brains. We desire to be GOOD, to be RIGHTEOUS. And we can often be found pointing out our righteousness. We even do it silently.


Even when we get upset with ourselves over our failures to be righteous, we are hoping to achieve righteousness, and stop failing.


Hungering and thirsting after righteousness.


If you are FILLED with righteousness, we aren't hungry or thirsty for it, right?


You hunger and thirst for things you do not have.  If you have plenty of food you don't go hungry. If you have plenty of water, you don't go thirsty.  We all know what it means to be thirsty and hungry, some of us on a daily basis. I say some because not everyone waits to feel hungry or thirsty before eating and drinking.  Just recently I read somewhere that some doctor or some study hasn't shown that if you wait to drink until you're thirsty you aren't drinking enough. Basically they were saying you show constantly drink, so you never experience thirst.  Is it true, I don't know, it's just another one of those studies of so many that are constantly being done.


Hungering and thirsting- brings a desire for food and drink.
The hungrier and thirstier you are the more you desire to eat and drink.


BLESSED are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness.


Because if you are HUNGRY and THIRSTY for righteousness you are DESIRING righteousness, you are desiring something you do NOT possess. You are desiring something outside of yourself. If you produced your own righteousness you wouldn't hunger or thirst for it because it'd be a part of you.  You can only hunger and thirst for something you don't automatically possess. None of us automatically possess the ability to eat- people starve to death all the time and not for lack of desiring to eat it's just that they do NOT have food or the ability to get that food on their own.


Hungering and thirsting for something that we do NOT possess in and of ourselves.  We have to comprehend that we do NOT have righteousness in ourselves.


Bonhoeffer said- 'Not only do the followers of Jesus renounce their rights, they renounce their own righteousness too.'


We have to do this if we are to comprehend that Jesus is the ONLY righteousness that matters.


Rom_3:26  To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.


His righteousness.


Rom_5:17  For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)


The gift of righteousness- Jesus Christ.


Rom 10:1  Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
Rom 10:2  For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
Rom 10:3  For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
Rom 10:4  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.


Truth. People try to establish their own righteousness-  rather than submit to the righteousness of God.


We MUST submit to the righteousness of God.  Christ's righteousness is what matters most.


This isn't as some imagine a license to misbehave and sin, simply because our righteousness has no merit in the weight of eternity.  When we accept Christ and HIS righteousness, we are accepting all HIS truth, and His truth is He desires for us to follow after His example and HE perfectly kept the law, PERFECTLY. So to say it's fine to sin is a lie, Christ NEVER said to go and sin, NEVER! In fact, Christ told us to 'sin no more'.  


Our right doing might be a result of our longing to live as Christ desires, but it does not earn us eternal life or a righteousness of our own. We can only have eternal life in Christ, and we can only have eternal through Christ's righteousness.


Is it any wonder we are to HUNGER and THIRST after righteousness?  We can only be filled if we do hunger and thirst.  Only if we acknowledge our need, understanding that need can only be filled by CHRIST, will we live in truth, Christ's truth.


Desire CHRIST'S RIGHTEOUSNESS as a primal need You have daily, consistently day after day, never living a day without that desire for Christ.


All by the GRACE and MERCY of our SAVIOR may we seek His righteousness, His LOVE!