“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”[1]
How does it make you feel to know that God blesses those who
are free to hunger and thirst for the righteousness they do not have?
Many people who think they are already good enough for God,
while many others face their shortcomings by trying to do better. Neither is
blessed no matter how much they think so.
On the other hand, the poor in spirit who have mourned their
unrighteousness, who have meekly come to the end of themselves in trying to fix
it and see in Christ the one on whom they can depend, freely let their hearts
hunger and thirst for the righteousness they see in him.
The fact that this righteousness is offered as a free gift
of grace to all who respond to Jesus in faith makes the hunger and thirst for
this righteousness the most hopeful thing in the whole wide world.
It is God’s own promise to carry on (what the Bible calls
sanctification) to completion (what the Bible calls glorification) the good
work God has begun in his children (justification).[2]
All of this is to say that his determination to make a
creature in his own image and likeness,[3] has
already fixed the sin-problem that stood in the way,[4] so
that now even the gates of hell cannot stand against the church Jesus is
building.[5]
And, one day, this church will be presented to Jesus as his bride,[6]
completely pure and blameless in his sight,[7] to
live forever in the satisfaction of love-relationship greater than anything us
humans have ever known.[8]
No wonder God’s Book encourages us with such words as this:
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.[9]
That is the righteousness we long for even now, and this
home church video should encourage you to let your hunger and thirst aim in
that direction.
© 2018 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles,
a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)
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