Jesus Christ THE Satisfaction from the hunger and thirst for Righteousness.

Beloved of God, consider Matthew 5:6, a part of Christ's Sermon on the Mount- "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."

See Luke's version in Luke 6:20- "Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh."

Luke's version is not referring to hunger for physical food. No one was physically hungry in the presence of our Saviour Jesus Christ who multiplied two fish and five loaves of bread to feed 5,000. Matthew and Luke are speaking of the same "hunger"- a hunger and thirst for Righteousness that can never be satisfied to God's standard by human effort at obeying the Law-

"For no person will be justified [freed of guilt and declared righteous] in His sight by [trying to do] the works of the Law. For through the Law we become conscious of sin [and the recognition of sin directs us toward repentance, but provides no remedy for sin]."

Some "men of God" imply that man must satisfy his hunger and thirst for righteousness (or justification before God) by trying to be godly by human effort/will-power aka by trying to obey the law and doing its works! Believer, beware of such! This is the sure way to get cut of from Christ and fall from Grace-

"For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the Law you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's Grace." Galatians 5:4.

Believer, beware of those antichrist "men of God" who preach variations of that horrid false doctrine that Satan preached to Eve in Eden: that you should "at least try" to satisfy your hunger for righteousness/godliness and thus be righteous like God (be like God) through your own human striving/will-power. See what God's word says of man's non-existent good and the will-power that false teachers lead the flock to repose confidence in- a truth that Paul experienced in Romans 7:18-

"For I know that nothing good lives within the flesh of my fallen humanity. The longings to do what is right are within me, but will-power is not enough to accomplish it."

God's word says human effort aka the arm of flesh will fail, is powerless and cannot. But Pride in the arm of flesh (human effort at obedience) that will fail causes many churchgoers to say:

"No, I can. God must be wrong. I still have some good in me. I can walk uprightly, keep the law from being broken by me and resist temptation to commit sin by my will-power and sheer determination.”

God's word says "There is none good but God." God's word says "There is none righteous, no, not one." Only God is righteous. His word says-

"For no person will be justified [freed of guilt and declared righteous] in His sight by [trying to do] the works of the Law." Romans 3:20.

But as Satan did with Eve, false preachers twist Matthew 5:20 and lead the flock to try to satisfy the desire to righteous like God (be like God) through human striving or will-power, even just a tiny bit of it. See the forbidden fruit as a picture of the Law that many churchgoers are trying to obey in order to satisfy their desire to be righteous like God (be like God) in Romans 7:8-12 (MSG)-

"Don’t you remember how it was? I do, perfectly well. The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of “forbidden fruit” out of it. The law code, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me."

Adam and Eve fell for this seemingly good but satanic doctrine of striving for godliness/righteousness by human effort that is being preached in many places today. They came under the curse and were cut off from the Tree of Life (a picture of Christ) when they tried to satisfy their craving for godliness (be like God) by their own human striving. Beloved of God, James 2:10 says-

"For whosoever shall keep the whole law yet stumble at one point, he is guilty of all."

For the one who depends on his own ability to obey the law to satisfy his hunger for righteousness/godliness like Adam and Eve did and thus has fallen away from from God's Grace, there is only one place to go- under the curse. See this in Romans 3:10-

"Anyone who tries to please God by obeying the Law is under a curse. The Scriptures say, “Everyone who doesn’t obey everything in the Law is under a curse.”

Notice "everything." Even the Pharisees and teachers of religious Law failed at keeping everything. Christ says in Matthew 5:20, the same Matthew 5 where we have the Beatitudes where He talks about hunger and thirst for righteousness-

"For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."

For all their strict adherence to the law, even the Pharisees could not merit/earn heaven. None of us can match their works. For starters, no Temple. No Levite priests. No burnt offering. All of these demands of the Law must be carried out to the letter by those who have a relationship with the Law or depend on their ability to obey the Law to make God like or bless them. Believer, Christ says "There is none good but God." Some churchgoers think that Christianity is all about:

"I will do my best to be good (be like God!) and keep the Law by my own power and Jesus (Grace) will see that I have really tried and consider me for His blessings."

This horrid mixture of part-Law and part-Grace is the "neither cold nor hot" that Christ speaks of in Revelation 3. Such who practice it cannot keep the Law fully and so are cursed. Worse, because such are trying to keep the Law in order to be right with God, they have been cut off from Christ (Galatians 5:4.) Believer, by God's Grace, let's not be found here. One is either saved by Grace alone (no human effort involved) or not saved at all-

"And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work." Romans 11:6.

Believer, why go on the wild goose chase of attaining your own self (righteousness) through the letter that kills? You have to eat the entire tree of the knowledge of good and evil (a picture of the Law) if you are depending on your own non-existent goodness and useless will-power to obey the Law to satisfy your hunger for righteousness or to make you righteous in God's sight. And you have to be in a CONSTANT state of having eaten EVERYTHING (kept the whole Law) to be declared righteous. No one can-

"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," Romans 3:23.

False doctrine preachers stop here and tell you to try to work your way back into God's glory by obeying the Law with your puny arm of flesh that will fail. But believer, there is much more to this verse! See it in its context in Romans 3:23-24.

"23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," Romans 3.

See even more in the New Living Translation:

"20 For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. 21 But now God has shown us a way to be made right with Him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. 22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.

23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in His grace, freely makes us right in His sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when He held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, 26 for He was looking ahead and including them in what He would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate His righteousness, for He himself is fair and just, and He makes sinners right in His sight when they believe in Jesus.

27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law."

Believer, this is the Good News. Notice Luke says: "Blessed are you who hunger NOW, for you will be satisfied."

For all who hunger and thirst NOW, our Satisfaction is here. His name is Jesus Christ.

Because we can never attain the perfect righteousness that the Law demands by human striving and thus were destined to be ruled over by sin and death, God Himself made His own beloved Son to become sin for us so that we might become righteous, because He loves us so-

"For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Corinthians 5:21.

By God's Grace, let's always see God's word in the light of what Christ has done to make us godly/righteous in His sight; never through the lens of what we must do by our own useless will-power (Romans 7:18) in our bid to be righteous in God's sight. Romans 5:9 says of how God our heavenly Father sees all who believe in Jesus:

"And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."

No one on earth can attain right-standing with God by human effort at obedience. The best that man can produce by his own power is like a menstrual rag in God's sight- Isaiah 64:6-

"We are all like one who is unclean, all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in Your sight."

The righteousness that man hungers and thirsts for cannot be earned by obedience and good works. Satisfaction cannot be derived from human effort at obedience. Like the rich young ruler that thought he was doing a good job of obeying the Law but went away sorrowful when Christ drew to his attention to something that he lacked, there will always be "one thing you lack."

Beloved of God, the righteousness that God's law demands can only be received as a gift from God who so loves us. This is Grace-undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour.

Again Luke 6:20- "Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh."

Beloved of God, are you hungering and thirsting to live a godly life NOW? Your need can never be satisfied by human effort at obeying the Law, giving tithe to rebuke the devourer or washing church toilet. Notice there is no Grace (Christ Himself) in these pointless activities? In fact, try to obey the Law in order to be godly or righteous like God and sin will have dominion as it did over Adam and Eve-

"For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under Law but under Grace." Romans 6:14.

Only by receiving God's abundance of Grace and His gift of righteousness that He freely satisfies us with in Christ do we get to live in triumph over sin and death:

"And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. 17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ." Romans 5:16-17.

This is the Good News.

To the arrogant, proud and superior who repose confidence in their will-power (arm of flesh) to keep the Law or to restore themselves into God's good graces after they fail, the Good News (Grace) is unacceptable and even "license to sin" - just as it was to the law-toting and (self)righteous Pharisees who could not cast the first stone yet stubbornly thought that they were godly/could keep the Law and hated Christ. Christ referred to them as "white-washed tombs;"

-just as it was with Judas who (like Peter that denied Christ thrice) sinned against God but unlike Peter, depended on his act of restitution (doing what the law commands) to rectify himself before God. Judas got depressed and killed himself. The same thing is happening in the world today to many whose hope of satisfaction in any facet of life (career, family, whatever) is in their arm of flesh that will fail and not in Christ. We get surprised when people who seem to "have it all" get depressed and kill themselves. It is simply Satan going about like a roaring lion and getting people into "Judas mode" for their imperfections and shortcomings that they are trying to fix by themselves. The devourer can only devour those who do not cast all their care (even the care of sins and unrighteousness) upon Jesus. See 1 Peter 5.

But to the helpless sinner who acknowledges his sins/utter weakness, puts no confidence in the flesh (will-power to obey) and utterly looks to the Lord Jesus Christ for righteousness and salvation as Peter did after he fell flat on his face, the Good News is the power of God that brings salvation, even salvation from sin and death-

"For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile. 17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in His sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”"

The Law is not of faith. And how does God make us right in His sight? See Romans 3-

"27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law."

Right believing always produces right living.