The Blessing of Hungering and Thirsting

Matthew 5:6

April 21, 2002

 

Appetites seemingly command our lives. Especially in our nation it seems that we live from one meal to the next! We anticipate the delicacies that will grace our palates. If one has an appetite for a particular food, he shuns other things until he is satisfied. Meat won't satisfy the craving for chocolate! 

 

An expectant mother might have appetite for unusual foods, and is likely to persist until she finds satisfaction. Some of you recall those runs to 24-hour groceries to pick up the oddest things in the middle of the night! Others have had repeat orders at drive thru windows to the point that your voice is recognizable by the staff. The fact is husbands have gone to great lengths to satisfy the appetite of expectant wives. 

 

Illness as well affects appetites so that the normal longings for food are dulled or vanished. Foods that once gave great pleasure now mean nothing. The appetite becomes an indicator of certain adversities in the body.

 

But when we speak of appetites, we also use it to describe things other than food. We might say a person has an appetite for fiction or for a sport or for gardening or any number of things. Appetite describes one's desire or longing for something so that it stays on the mind, and consumes the thoughts until satisfied. These can be healthy appetites that enhance our lives. Or they can be destructive appetites that drive us away from God, and frankly, that can destroy every relationship.

 

That's where we must turn our attention to having the right kind of appetite in life. There are things for which we long that can only satisfy us for the moment. Some of these things consume us and control us. Appetites that are bent on wrecking our lives may control some of us so that our only hope is to have a marked change of appetite that will lead to a transformation of life. Our need is for an appetite for righteousness. You can be sure of this: those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are Christians; and those who don't, are not Christians. Your appetite reveals your heart.

 

Spiritual hungering and thirsting naturally follows one who recognizes his spiritual bankruptcy, who has mourned unto repentance over his sin, and who has bent his will away from selfishness toward a submissive spirit to Christ. A peculiar appetite for righteousness will mark the Christian. That is precisely what Jesus Christ describes in this fourth Beatitude as he unfolds for us the character of those who belong to his kingdom. What kind of appetite desires righteousness? What hinders and helps this type of appetite? The answer is found in the fourth Beatitude. Let us consider it in this study.

 

I. Object of spiritual appetites

 

I think it is important that we establish what Jesus said the kingdom-person hunger and thirsts for before we even give extended consideration to the spiritual appetite. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." The focus of this spiritual appetite is not for blessing or happiness or approval by Christians. It is hungering after righteousness. It is a desire for that which is not natural, that which is outside one's own capacity to produce or manufacture. "Righteousness" is a key term throughout Scripture. We find it used to characterize the Lord, "Our Righteousness," and to characterize those who are believers-the righteous (particularly in the Psalms). But here Jesus Christ points out that the characteristic appetite of the kingdom-person is for "righteousness." What does he mean by this?

 

1. Three-dimensional

 

"Righteousness" is used in three ways in the Scriptures: legal righteousness, moral righteousness, and social righteousness. There is a sense in which each of these is contained in the hungering that Jesus speaks of, though, as we shall see, one of them appears to be the primary focus of his explanation of the kingdom person. Sinclair Ferguson points out that "righteousness" has a root idea of "'conformity to a norm'. Given that norm, righteousness is the situation in which things are what they ought to be" [The Sermon on the Mount, 27]. We might simplify it by shortening the term. Righteousness refers to that which is right. But that must be qualified! For in our day we are told that whatever is right for one person may not be right for another. We've gone beyond situation ethics to arbitrary anti-ethics. So we qualify righteousness as that which is right before God. And because it is right before God, it is always right. What is right before God?

 

First, from a legal or judicial sense, we realize that since God is our Creator and we are rebels against the Creator, then for him to forgive us and accept us demands that there be legal righteousness satisfying the Creator and Judge. We speak of being in 'a right relationship with God' in this sense, that something has been done to remove our guilt before God, satisfy his justice, and bring us into a relationship of wholeness to him. That work belongs to Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection! That is the whole subject of the gospel, that Jesus Christ has satisfied divine justice in his substitutionary death on the cross so that through faith in him we might be in a right relationship to God. And it is perfectly legal, though extraordinarily merciful! The sin that has offended God has been addressed by divine wrath at the cross; and now God can bring us into a right relationship to him in a judicial way.

 

So should we hunger and thirst after that kind of righteousness? Indeed, if you do not now know the forgiveness of sins and a right relationship to God, then your need is to hunger for this legal righteousness provided through Jesus Christ, confessing that He that knew no sin became sin for you so that you might become the righteousness of God in Him (II Cor 5:21). Have you had this kind of hunger eternally satisfied through faith in Jesus Christ?

 

The second kind of righteousness is moral righteousness. It is "that righteousness of character and conduct which pleases God," according to John Stott [Christian Counter-Culture, 41]. This makes perfectly good sense when we think about what is involved in legal righteousness. In the first we have come to know Christ as our Savior and Lord. In moral righteousness we demonstrate what that means, that Jesus has indeed saved us from sin in both its penalty and power. As Lord, "He not only brings pardon, but he works in us to make us alive in our right relationship to God" [Ferguson, 28]. So we might call this "right living" under the reign of Jesus Christ, as Ferguson put it [29]. Do you hunger for this "right living" as a subject in Christ's kingdom, as one who has been brought into a right relationship to God through his death and resurrection?

 

The third aspect involves social righteousness. It is very fitting that those who have known legal righteousness through faith in Christ, and who are experiencing moral righteousness through his sanctifying work by the Spirit, would hunger and thirst to see righteousness spread throughout all of society. This is the root of a Christian's action as salt and light in the world. This is why Christians should be the moral conscience of the nation, first demonstrating righteousness received as a gift of God, and calling for it by every subject in God's creation. That means we call upon our lawmakers to do what is right before God. We refuse to compromise by giving in to the dulling effects of the world, and remind all men that we are accountable to God. Ultimately, this kind of righteousness-in a social sense-cannot completely satisfy. For man is morally incapable of righteousness apart from the gift of God. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can do this. Nevertheless, Christians must call for social righteousness to help restrain the naturally depraved impulses in society, and to call attention to the "divine norm" that holds all of us accountable before him.

 

2. Primary focus

 

While there is a sense that we hunger and thirst for righteousness in all three aspects addressed, I think that the focus of our Lord's exposition on the Christian's character is found in the second one-moral righteousness. Legal righteousness is immediate rather than ongoing as the intention of the present participle implies ("those who hunger and keep hungering and thirst and keep thirsting for righteousness"). Though we live in the reality of this satisfying legal righteousness through Christ, it is something that is complete, realized, and finished in the Divine Judge's sight. We no longer wait for forgiveness; we are forgiven, the debt is paid in full (John 19:30). Social righteousness is an offshoot or result of moral righteousness. It does not come first. It is part of the Christian's consciousness and worldview as one given to moral righteousness. Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes that hungering and thirsting for moral righteousness "means ultimately the desire to be free from sin in all its forms and in its every manifestation" [The Sermon on the Mount, 77]. The Puritan pastor, Thomas Watson, explains that this sort of spiritual hunger is the soul panting "after that which it apprehends most suitable and proportionable to itself," in other words, it is righteousness that befits the new creature in Christ [The Beatitudes, 122]. It is as Paul expressed, the putting on the new self, "which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth" (Eph 4:24).

 

What Jesus is saying is that to hunger and thirst for righteousness means that our deepest desire and longing is to be like Jesus Christ in everything. As Robert Murray M'Cheyne cried, "Oh God, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be!" It is the longing for "conformity to God's will" in every detail of life [D. A. Carson, The Sermon on the Mount, 22].

 

I know of nothing that will more affect your total worldview and behavior than the unflagging desire to be holy like Jesus Christ. Do you desire to be like Christ? Does this burn in your heart? Does it affect the decisions you make, the relationships you enter, the way you use your resources, the way you use your time, the things you do for recreation, the way you approach your education and vocation?

 

II. Analysis of spiritual appetites

 

Perhaps we can better think through on this by analyzing the implications of spiritual appetites. What is it that you hunger for? What do you thirst for? No metaphor more ably expresses what Jesus is aiming for than that of hunger and thirst. For both are basic to life. Every day we satisfy our appetites even though we may think little of it. But people in the first century understood what it was to be hungry. They knew about the droughts that left them thirsty just as do millions across our globe today. When a man is hungry the only thing that will satisfy him is food.            He has no interest in other things. You can show him diamonds and jewels, houses and land, but if he is starving his only desire is for food. He realizes that all those other things that people value so highly are meaningless in comparison to satisfying his hunger. They are the kingdom citizens.

 

What you hunger for reveals the character of your heart. You can mask your outward performance. You can churn out Christian lingo, and put on a happy face, but you know what you really desire. Multitudes flock into churches each week with "Christian masks" that hide the reality that their appetite is not for Jesus Christ but for the things of the world. But Jesus tells us that only those who have the spiritual appetite to hunger and thirst for righteousness will find satisfaction.

 

1. Spiritual appetite

 

The choice of words is important: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." Or we might translate it, "Blessed are the ones who constantly hunger and thirst for righteousness, because they will be satisfied." Kent Hughes is right. "Jesus is far from recommending a genteel desire for spiritual nourishment, but rather a starvation for righteousness, a desperate hungering to be conformed to God's will" [The Sermon on the Mount, 40]. The words point to desperation in heart and soul that will not be satisfied with a paltry knowledge of God or a slight improvement in moral conduct. It is radical, just like the other Beatitudes. It is the longing to be clothed with Jesus Christ (Rom 13:14).

 

There is deep soul-searching in this Beatitude. We must be honest with ourselves. Forget the fact of what you profess. Forget for the moment that you attend church regularly and that you have Christian friends. What is it that means more to you than anything else? What is it that you must have-it drives your life, consumes your thoughts, directs your impulses? Is it for money or sex or fame or popularity or revenge? Then you are an idolater, for those things have become your god.

 

Do you remember the rich young ruler? He came to Jesus asking what he could do to inherit eternal life. He wanted eternal life, no doubt about it. But he did not want it as his chief joy and delight. Jesus' instructions revealed that his life was wrapped up in things. He hungered and thirsted for more and more things! He was at heart, an idolater that did not know Christ and eternal life. He wanted the eternal life, but he did not want the holy life that accompanies it. And so he had neither. Does that describe you?

 

Thomas Watson explained, "Desire is the best discovery of a Christian" [129]. What you desire explains your heart. I dare say that there is no one here that desires to go to hell. All want to go to heaven. But that is not the issue. The issue is do you desire to be like Christ? For that is a Christian-not simply someone going to heaven, but a person in whom Jesus Christ has revealed his own righteous life. The spiritual appetite that Jesus Christ calls for is the desire to be like Christ, not simply have the benefits of Christ. It is the desire to have Christ above all that the world offers. It is the desire for Christ that does not give up or abate because of difficulties or demands. It is the desire for Christ that does not faint at the cost of true discipleship. It is the desire for Christ that cannot be put off for lesser things, or procrastinated over while one ventures after the world [cf. Watson 124-126].

 

2. Dangerous appetite

 

The aim of Jesus Christ in this Beatitude is to show us the only satisfying, God-honoring appetite possible. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." But it is a dangerous thing to have an appetite that does not hunger and thirst after righteousness, to have a life that has chief desire for something other than to know Christ and walk steadfastly conformed to his will.

 

I've read several polls lately by different pollsters that have all concluded the same thing. There is no appreciable difference between the moral conduct of professing Christians and those who make no claim of being Christians. Lying, cheating on income tax, adultery, divorce, promiscuous behavior, all seem to be the practice of those in the church and out of the church. Add to this the addictions to pornography, drugs, alcohol, profanity, and a host of other things that have penetrated the church as though it was the norm. What you have is the glaring evidence of an unregenerate people. For Jesus Christ was not giving a suggestion by this Beatitude. It was not even a command as though it is something to attempt to do. It stands as a statement of fact. Those who are living by another appetite will not know the satisfaction of God.

 

But I don't want us to think that if we avoid the more blatant, extreme things that we are in safe territory. For we can easily develop appetites for things that are not morally wrong, but are just as dangerous to us spiritually. We are all hungering and thirsting after something. The question remains, what that might be. That is why we must take a spiritual inventory to see if our appetite is for righteousness or if it is just for the blessings of God. Do we want the benefits of Christianity without being Christian in desire and practice? We may have fallen into the trap of Balaam who said before Balak, "Let me die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his!" He wanted to die like the upright, but he did not care to live like the upright (Num 23:10). Is that the case with you? Do you want all the blessings of God on your life, but you really do not care to live a holy life, you really do not long to be like Christ? Then you have a dangerous appetite that will only lead to destruction.

 

3. Healthy appetite

 

We cultivate a healthy spiritual appetite by recognizing our own spiritual poverty, by mourning over our sins as we seek repentance, and by submitting ourselves to God. In this way we turn our appetite away from the husks of the world that cannot satisfy to hunger and thirst after the table of Christ.

 

Certainly we help our spiritual appetite by reading the Word and by faithfulness in hearing the Word of God. But there is another area that we often overlook, one that our Puritan friends held so dear. We can help our spiritual hunger at the Lord's Table for there we feast upon the body of Christ and drink upon the blood of the covenant poured out for us, not in a literal fashion of course, but spiritually speaking. Christ has given us His Table as a regular reminder of the sufficiency of his death for us, the effectiveness of the new covenant in his blood, and the satisfaction that comes through partaking of him. Yet some of you are not faithful to the Lord's Table. Is it because your appetite is for lesser things than the Lord Jesus Christ? My friend, if you would hunger and thirst for righteousness, then avail yourself of every provision of God that will stimulate a healthy spiritual appetite, and that certainly includes the Lord's Table.

 

III. Satisfaction of spiritual appetites

 

The promise that Christ gives for a spiritual appetite set upon righteousness is "for they shall be satisfied."  Here Jesus Christ makes a promise. If you hunger and thirst for righteousness, that righteousness that is wrought out of Christ's own redemptive life given for you, then you will find the deepest, most profound satisfaction. Whose voice compels you? Is it that of the world that makes endless promises only to leave you empty and dissatisfied? I fear for some among us. I fear that you are heeding the voice of the world. I fear that you think you will find a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow by pursuing the pleasures of the world in rebellion against the Lord Jesus Christ. The only true satisfaction is found in hungering and thirsting for righteousness.

 

1. What satisfies you?

 

There's really a paradox here. For in one sense you are deeply satisfied when you hunger and thirst for Christ's righteousness to be radiantly evident in your life, and yet you will keep hungering and thirsting for more. The Christian life is one of knowing something of immediate satisfaction in the forgiveness of sins and assurance of salvation (in justification), but it is also an ongoing process in which you continue to hunger and thirst, and you continue to find deeper satisfaction (in sanctification), until one day you will stand completed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ with no more sin, no more temptation, no more desire for sin, but only the perfections of Christ clothing you (in glorification). Kent Hughes expressed it well, "The more one conforms to God's will, the more fulfilled and content one becomes. But that in turn spawns a greater discontent. Our hunger increases and intensifies in the very act of being satisfied" [42].

 

What satisfies you? With Bernard of Clairvaux can you sing (Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts),

Jesus, Thou Joy of loving hearts,

Thou Fount of life, Thou Light of men,

From the best bliss that earth imparts,

We turn unfilled to Thee again.

 

Thy Truth unchanged hath ever stood,

Thou savest those that on Thee call;

To them that seek Thee, Thou art good,

To them that find Thee, all in all.

 

We taste Thee, O Thou living Bread,

And long to feast upon Thee still;

We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead,

And thirst our souls from Thee to fill.


2. How can you be satisfied?

 

How can you be satisfied? It begins by realizing that on your own you cannot be satisfied. And in the things that the world parades before you, you cannot be satisfied. You must hunger and thirst for what God alone can give. Your poverty and mourning have brought you to see Christ alone as your bread and drink. Like the Prodigal Son, no more feeding on husks with the pigs for you, but in repenting, humbling yourself, and appealing to the Father, you are finding your deepest satisfactions met in Jesus Christ as your righteousness. Lloyd-Jones reminds us, "We are not hungering and thirsting after righteousness as long as we are holding with any sense of self-satisfaction to anything that is in us, or to anything that we have ever done" [88]. And so we cast aside all pretense of personal righteousness apart from Jesus Christ; we go forward as a follower of Jesus Christ, bent on conforming to his will as he constantly imparts grace. We hunger for Christ to be seen in us. We thirst for Christ to clothe us. In Jesus Christ alone we are satisfied, only to long for more of him and to find him always satisfying.

 

Conclusion

 

"You say you hunger and are not satisfied?" Thomas Watson asks. "Perhaps God is not satisfied with your hunger. You have 'opened wide your mouth' (Psalm 81:10), but you have not 'opened your ear' Psalm 49:4)" [140].

 

Are you hungering and thirsting for Christ alone and the righteousness he gives? Then you have every reason to be assured that you are a Christian; so hunger, thirst, and be satisfied!

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