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Blessed Are the Hungry: Longing for Righteousness and Finding Satisfaction in Christ (Matthew 5:6) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to reformed thinking. This is the deep dive.
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  Today, we're taking on one single powerful statement from
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  the Sermon on the Mount. It's a verse that I think really
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  defines the inner life of a Christian.
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  We're looking at Matthew chapter 5, verse 6.
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  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for
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  they shall be satisfied. Just a simple sentence, but
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  there's so much packed into it. Right.
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  And our mission today is to unpack it.
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  We're not treating this like some standalone proverb or, you
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  know, just a nice piece of moral advice.
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  No, this is what you called it before.
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  It's royal instruction. It is.
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  It's from the king defining the character of the people in his
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  Kingdom. It tells you who they are and
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  maybe just as critically, what they can count on.
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  And the structure is so simple, but it's it's weighty.
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  You got three parts. OK, what are they?
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  First the pronouncement. Blessed are that's God's
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  favorable verdicts. Then you get the those who
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  hunger and thirst for righteousness.
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  That's the character trait. And finally, the promise, the
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  promise, for they shall be satisfied.
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  And that's the divine guarantee. The whole thing is a miniature
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  framework of grace. OK, so before we dive into the
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  hunger itself, we have to set the scene.
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  I mean, Matthew doesn't just drop this in out of nowhere.
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  Not at all. This is the Sermon on the Mount,
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  Matthew, chapters 5 through 7. Why is that specific setting so
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  vital here? Well, you have to remember what
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  Matthew's Gospel is all about. He presents Jesus first and
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  foremost as the Messiah, the King.
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  Right, the promised king has arrived.
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  And so his Kingdom is by definition a righteous Kingdom.
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  So when Christ sits down on that mountain, he's acting like a
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  king on his throne. He's getting the law defining
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  what it means to be his subject. So this isn't like general
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  advice for everyone on the planet.
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  No, it's instruction for his disciples, for those who claim
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  to belong to Him. He's laying out the required
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  inner character for life under His rule.
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  So it's about citizenship really, the constitution of the
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  Kingdom. Exactly.
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  And this theme of righteousness, it just runs all through the
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  start of Matthew. Think back to his baptism.
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  Right. John is hesitant, but Jesus
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  insists on being baptized, He says to carry out all
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  righteousness. Even though he had no sin to
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  repent of. Correct.
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  He's identifying with his people there, setting this pattern of
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  perfect obedience. He's establishing the standard
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  that he himself is going to meet for them.
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  And then just a few verses after our text in Matthew 5, four to
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  20, he drops this bombshell. He does.
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  He says, Unless your righteousness exceeds that of
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  the strives and Pharisees, you will not enter the Kingdom of
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  heaven. And that must have been a just a
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  shocking thing to hear. I mean, they were the most
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  religious people around. They were the standard.
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  They were, and Christ says that's not enough.
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  Your righteousness has to be something completely different,
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  something deeper than their meticulous outward performance.
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  So that immediately rules out the idea that this hunger can be
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  satisfied by just, you know, checking boxes.
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  Absolutely. And then there's one more key
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  verse from chapter 6. Seek first the Kingdom of God
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  and His righteousness. Yes, and that little word His is
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  everything. We're told to seek God's
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  righteousness, not some version we've invented for ourselves.
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  Right, not our own. And that pursuit is put above
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  everything, above food, clothing, all the worries of
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  life. So this whole context forces us
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  to see this beatitude as really the engine that drives a true
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  citizen of the Kingdom. OK, so let's get to that engine
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  then. The description those who hunger
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  and thirst for righteousness. The language here is so
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  physical, so visceral. It is.
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  I mean, he chooses the two most basic human needs.
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  Hunger and thirst. And you have to remember, in
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  their world, food and water weren't guaranteed.
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  This wasn't just oh, I'm feeling a bit peckish.
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  But this was a life or death reality.
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  Yes, it was a desire that takes over your entire person, your
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  body, your mind, your emotions. If you're dying of thirst,
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  literally nothing else matters. You can't think about anything
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  but water. So he's using this image of
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  biological survival to paint a picture of a spiritual.
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  Longing. A longing that's strong and
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  persistent and consumes your attention.
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  And you mentioned persistence. I heard that there's a
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  grammatical clue in the original language that really drives that
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  home. There is.
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  It's a small detail, but it's so meaningful.
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  The Greek verbs for hunger and thirst are in a form called the
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  present participle. OK, what does that actually
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  mean? It describes an ongoing
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  continuous action. So a better translation might be
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  those who go on hungering and thirsting.
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  So it's not a one time event, it's not just the moment you
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  were converted and you felt this intense need for God.
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  Exactly. It's not a momentary pang or
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  something that happened in your past.
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  It's a sustained, ongoing characteristic of the blessed
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  person. That's a huge distinction,
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  because that leads to a paradox, doesn't it?
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  It does. If the promise is that they
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  shall be satisfied, why would the hunger continue?
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  Shouldn't satisfaction get rid of the hunger?
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  You'd think so, but it doesn't erase the appetite.
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  What it does is it changes its nature.
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  OK, explain that. When you first taste Christ's
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  righteousness, when you're justified, you get a taste of
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  how good it is. But in that very same moment,
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  you become painfully aware of how far you still fall short in
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  your actual life. So the taste of true
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  righteousness actually makes you more dissatisfied with your own
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  unrighteousness. That's it exactly.
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  It's like having this incredible appetizer that just makes you
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  crave the main course even more. You see what's possible, what's
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  been given to you in Christ, and it fuels this ongoing hunger for
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  more of it in your life. Which brings us to the source of
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  this desire. Because let's be honest, this
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  isn't natural. Not in the slightest.
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  The natural human state isn't to hunger and thirst for God's
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  holiness. No scripture is very clear
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  Romans 3. No one seeks for God.
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  The natural person might seek relief from guilt or a better
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  reputation or Peace of Mind. All self focused things.
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  All self focused. They don't seek God's
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  righteousness, which is holy and demanding and frankly terrifying
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  to our nature. So this appetite, this craving
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  has to be supernatural. It has to come from outside of
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  us. Absolutely.
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  The sources all point to this being the exclusive work of the
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  Holy Spirit. It's the Spirit who convicts us
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  of sin and, importantly, of righteousness.
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  And this is where the order of the Beatitudes is so important.
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  This verse, Matthew 5.6 doesn't just come out of nowhere, it
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  builds on what came before. Yes, it's a logical and
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  theological progression. The spirit's work is like a
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  demolition project. At first demolition he has to
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  tear down our pride and self-sufficiency.
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  So it starts with being poor in spirit.
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  Recognizing you're spiritually bankrupt before God, you have
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  nothing to offer Him. And that realization leads to
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  mourning, grieving over that bankrupt state, over your sin.
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  Which then leads to being meek. Bowing to God's rule, giving up
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  your own self will only after that process of being humbled,
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  of being emptied. Then the hunger can begin.
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  Then the hunger for the opposite begins.
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  You move from recognizing your total lack to craving the total
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  fullness of righteousness. The hungry soul is always, by
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  definition, the humbled soul. O let's talk about how to know
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  if this hunger is the real thing.
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  It seems like it could be easily confused with other feelings
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  like religious guilt or just wanting to be a better person.
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  It can be, and the key difference, the primary mark of
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  true hunger is that it is God centered, not self-centered.
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  OK, what does that look like in practice?
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  A self-centered hunger is what? A self-centered hunger is about
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  me. How can I stop feeling so
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  guilty? How can I fix my reputation?
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  How can I feel better about myself?
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  It's all about self improvement or self comfort.
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  But a God centered hunger asks a different question.
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  A totally different question. It asks how can I be right with
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  a holy God and how can I live in a way that pleases Him?
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  The focus shifts from my feelings to His glory.
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  So the person who truly hungers wants to see God's name honored.
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  They want to see His law, loved his character reflected in their
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  own life. Yes.
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  They're not just satisfied with feeling peace in their own
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  heart, they're restless until they see God's standard upheld.
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  It's what the psalmist meant when he said, Whom have I in
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  heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth
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  that I desire besides you. The sources also say this hunger
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  is broad. It's not selective.
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  Right. It reaches into every area of
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  life. It wants both pardon and purity.
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  What do you mean by that? It wants a right status before
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  God. That's pardon or justification,
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  but it also wants a right walk. That's purity or sanctification.
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  It wants a clean conscience and a changed life.
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  The 2 are inseparable for the truly hungry soul.
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  So if this is all happening on the inside, what are some of the
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  outward visible signs? How do you see this in a person?
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  Well, a few things stand out. First, there's a high view of
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  God's holiness. You can't crave God's
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  righteousness if you think God is, you know, just a slightly
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  better version of yourself. It's like Isaiah and the Temple.
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  He sees the Lord high and lifted up, and his first reaction is.
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  Woe is me, I am lost. Seeing God's perfect holiness
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  instantly exposed his own unrighteousness, and that
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  creates the hunger. And that leads directly to
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  repentance. Genuine repentance, not just
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  saying sorry, but confessing and forsaking sin.
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  It's that godly grief that Paul talks about, a grief that leads
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  to real change. This hungry person would also, I
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  assume, be drawn to the things of God.
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  An eagerness for the means of grace.
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  That's a huge one. They actually want to be in
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  church, hearing the word taught. They want to pray.
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  They want to be with other believers.
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  They see those things not as duties, but as a feast.
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  Like the early church in Acts devoted to the apostles teaching
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  and the fellowship and the prayers.
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  Precisely. If you're starving, you don't
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  complain about being invited to a banquet.
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  And finally, there's a growing dislike for just putting on a
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  show. Yes.
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  A weariness of empty religiosity.
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  They get tired of being what Christ called whitewashed tombs,
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  looking good on the outside but full of hypocrisy inside.
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  They want the real thing, internal change, not just an
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  outward performance. OK, this is so important because
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  there are so many counterfeits out there.
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  Let's talk about the first one. Legalism.
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  Legalism. Is probably the most common
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  counterfeit. It's this idea that
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  righteousness is a self-made project.
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  It's about earning God's favor, building up your own resume of
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  good deeds. Exactly.
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  It's what Paul argued against in Romans, where he says Israel was
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  seeking to establish their own righteousness instead of
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  submitting to the righteousness that comes from God.
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  And the real difference is that the truly hungry person knows
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  they have no resume to present. They know they're bankrupt.
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  They know righteousness has to be a gift, not a wage.
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  The legalist is working for acceptance.
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  The hungry believer is working from acceptance.
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  OK, the second counterfeit is the polar opposite
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  antinomianism. Which is a fancy word for
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  lawlessness. Right.
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  This is the person who says I love God's grace, so it doesn't
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  matter how I live, the law is irrelevant.
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  And it's just a profound spiritual confusion.
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  I mean, how can you say you hunger and thirst for
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  righteousness, which is God's holy standard, and at the same
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  time prefer sin, which is the exact opposite of that standard?
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  It's a contradiction. True grace doesn't lead to
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  lawlessness. It can't.
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  Paul says in Titus that the grace of God trains us to
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  renounce ungodliness. Grace makes you hate the sin
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  that Christ died for. It doesn't give you a license to
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  enjoy it. Then there's the third
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  counterfeit, which is maybe the most pervasive one in our
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  culture. The world's view of happiness.
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  Which is what? It's a hunger for comfort, for
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  wealth, for self-expression, for ease.
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  Our whole culture tells you that a blessed life is a life without
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  struggle. But Christ just completely flips
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  that on its head. Completely in the very same
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  sermon, he says Blessed are those who are persecuted for
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  righteousness's sake. Right.
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  So the person who truly hungers for God's righteousness might
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  actually lose comfort, lose their reputation, face
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  opposition. And yet the king calls them
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  blessed because their satisfaction is guaranteed by
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  God, not by their circumstances. The world's hunger is for things
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  from the world. The spiritual hunger is for
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  God's holiness to come upon the world.
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  So now we have to get really specific about the object of
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  this hunger. What exactly is this
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  righteousness that we're supposed to be craving?
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  The Greek word is D kyacena, and it's a big comprehensive term.
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  It is, and if we define it too narrowly, we're going to miss
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  the whole picture. Right.
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  If you say it's only about your legal standing before God, you
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  can ignore the need for a changed life.
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  But if you say it's only about ethics and living a good life,
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  you miss your desperate need for grace and a right standing you
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  can't earn. So the sources point to a
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  three-dimensional view. 3 Horizons of righteousness.
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  That's a great way to put it. It covers everything that is
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  right according to God's own character and His law.
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  OK, let's break him down. What's the first horizon?
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  The first horizon, the most immediate need for the awakened
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  Sinner, is justification. This is about having a right
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  standing with God. So this is the legal aspect.
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  It is the hunger starts when you realize you're guilty before a
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  holy judge and the question becomes how can IA condemned
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  Sinner ever be right with him? You know you can't earn it.
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  Yeah. You can't do enough good things
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  to balance out the bad. Right.
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  So the hunger is for a righteousness that has to come
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  from outside of you. It's what theologians call an
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  alien righteousness. Alien, meaning it's foreign to
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  us, it's not our own. Exactly.
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  It's the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ which is
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  credited or imputed to us through faith alone.
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  And Christ is the one who provides it.
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  He is. He lived the perfectly obedient
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  life we couldn't live, and he died the death we deserved.
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  As Second Corinthians 5.21 says, God made him who knew no sin to
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  be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness
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  of God. So when a soul hungers for that
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  right standing, God meets that need with the perfect record of
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  His Son. Instantly and completely.
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  That's justification. OK, so that brings peace, but
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  we've already said the hunger doesn't stop there.
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  That leads to the second horizon.
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  Yes, sanctification. This is the hunger for a right
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  way of living. So moving from our legal status
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  to our actual practical life, right?
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  Justification solves the problem of our guilt.
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  Sanctification addresses the problem of our ongoing
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  corruption and sin. The God who declares us
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  righteous doesn't just leave us in our old patterns.
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  If the Spirit is really at work in you, those old patterns
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  become, well, intolerable. They do.
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  You're joined to Christ, as Roman 6 says, so that you can
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  walk in newness of life. The person who hungers for
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  righteousness yearns to be changed in practice.
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  They want to see their anger tamed, their selfish desires
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  cleanse, their habits reshaped by God's Word.
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  It's that relentless pursuit of holy character.
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  And this is where grace really shows its power.
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  Remember Titus, Grace trains us to renounce ungodliness.
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  The truly hungry soul wants both the declaration of righteousness
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  and the demonstration of it. And this is a lifelong process.
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  It involves struggle. It does.
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  Unlike justification which is a one time declaration.
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  Sanctification is a process, but the hunger for it is the proof
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  that the work is. Real.
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  OK, so we have a right standing and a right walk.
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  But there's a third horizon, one that looked beyond just our own
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  individual lives. Right.
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  And that's the eschatological horizon, a hunger for a right
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  order in the Kingdom. What do you mean by that?
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  It means the hunger extends from my own soul to the entire
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  cosmos. A true believer can't be fully
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  satisfied as long as the world is filled with injustice,
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  rebellion and idolatry. So our personal peace isn't the
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  end of the story. Not at all.
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  We long for God's will to be done on earth as it is in
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  heaven. Not just in my heart or my
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  church, but everywhere. This is why Christians should
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  care about justice and mercy in the world.
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  It's part of this hunger. It is, but it's a longing rooted
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  in a promise, not in a kind of human optimism.
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  We know we can't build a perfect world now.
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  So what are we longing for? We're longing for the new
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  heavens and the new earth, where, as Seven Peter says,
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  righteousness dwells. The final satisfaction is when
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  God makes all things new and every trace of sin and its
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  effects are gone forever. It's a comprehensive hunger for
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  a right relationship with God, a right life, and a right world.
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  And that brings us to the final part of the verse.
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  The royal pledge itself. For they shall be satisfied.
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  This is God's guarantee the king quits a seal on it.
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  He does, and the language here, the grammar is so important.
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  How so? The verb shall be satisfied is
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  in what's called the future passive tense.
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  OK, so future means it's a promise for what's to come.
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  What does passive mean here? Passive means the subject of the
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  sentence isn't doing the action, the action is being done to
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  them. So it's not that we satisfy
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  ourselves. Exactly.
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  It means God is the one who will fill, feed and gratify the
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  hungry soul. It's his action, not ours.
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  That's a huge assurance. The guarantee isn't based on the
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  strength of my hunger, but on the faithfulness of God.
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  It's a royal pledge straight from the King's lips, an act of
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  pure divine generosity. It means the same God who
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  awakens this sometimes painful desire in you will not mock you
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  by leaving you empty. The one who makes you hungry
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  promises to feed you. The connection is unbreakable.
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  So this satisfaction, does it only happen in the future or do
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  we experience some of it now? It starts now.
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  There's a present satisfaction, a taste of the feast to come.
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  The moment you believe. Yes, believers already taste
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  real satisfaction in Christ. He called himself the bread of
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  life, the living water. He promised that those who come
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  to him will never hunger or thirst again in that ultimate
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  sense. So this would be things like
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  having a real peace with God for the first time.
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  A. Real piece of conscience, joy in
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  the Holy Spirit, the assurance that you have a clean standing
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  before God. You were starving and now you've
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  been given a meal. But, and we keep coming back to
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  this paradox that present taste doesn't get rid of the hunger.
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  No, it deepens it. It recalibrates it.
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  That's. The beautiful mystery of it, the
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  taste is real, but you know it's incomplete.
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  It's a down payment. You've tasted that the Lord is
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  good, and now you just want more of that goodness, more of that
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  righteousness. True satisfaction in Christ
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  makes you even more dissatisfied with your remaining sin.
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  Which all points toward the future.
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  The future fullness. The complete gratification.
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  This is where all hunger, physical and spiritual, finally
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  disappears forever. The Book of Revelation talks
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  about this. It does.
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  They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore, because
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  the Lamb will be their shepherd and guide them to springs of
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  living water. Every desire that God ever
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  placed in your heart will be fully and permanently met.
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  And this final satisfaction perfectly wraps up those 3
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  horizons of righteousness we talked about.
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  It brings them all to completion.
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  First, our justification is fully vindicated.
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  It will be publicly declared before the whole universe.
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  No more doubts. No more accusations.
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  And our sanctification. It's brought to flawless
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  holiness. Every last trace of sin is gone.
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  Our character will finally perfectly match our status.
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  The struggle is over. And what about that hunger for a
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  righteous world, the eschatological 1.
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  That's finally displayed in the renewed heaven and earth.
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  Injustice, suffering, rebellion, death, all gone.
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  The world is restored to God's perfect righteous order.
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  Every dimension of the hunger for status, for character, for a
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  renewed creation is completely, eternally satisfied.
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  OK, this is all incredibly encouraging, but it also raises
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  A practical question. What if you're listening to this
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  and you're thinking my spiritual appetite is weak, It's dull.
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  I get more excited about a new TV show that I do about
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  righteousness. What do you do then?
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  That's a very honest and very common feeling, and the first
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  step is not to despair, but to turn that recognition into
• 19:34
  prayer and effort. You can't just will yourself to
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  be more hungry. So where do you start?
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  You start where God has promised to feed his people at his table.
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  We're talking about the means of grace.
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  You can't complain about being weak if you refuse to eat.
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  You can't, and that starts with the Word.
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  If you want to cultivate this hunger, you have to be
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  consistently taking in Scripture.
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  This means being in church on the Lord's Day, hearing the Word
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  preached carefully. Not just for entertainment, but
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  for substance. Substance following that pattern
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  of the early church, the Word shows us the perfect
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  righteousness we lack, and it shows us the perfect provision
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  in Christ, exposes our need and reveals the solution and then.
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  Talking to God himself. Prayer, of course.
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  The early church devoted themselves to the prayers.
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  They had set times for it, both corporately and privately.
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  Prayer is the native language of hunger.
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  You're crying out to God, admitting your weakness, asking
• 20:28
  him to give me life according to your Word.
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  And then there are the more. Physical, tangible means yes.
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  Fellowship and the Sacraments. Being with other believers is
• 20:38
  not optional. It's essential for spiritual
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  health and the Lord's Supper. The breaking of bread is a
• 20:44
  physical meal that reminds us of the spiritual reality of
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  Christ's perfect righteousness given for us.
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  It feeds our faith so those. Are the corporate things?
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  What about individual cultivation?
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  How do we sharpen our own appetite day by day?
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  I think it begins. By spending time thinking about
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  God's holiness and His law, Psalm One says the blessed man
• 21:05
  meditates on the law day and night, not to earn salvation.
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  We've covered that. No, but to understand.
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  The standard, The law shows you the character of God, and when
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  you take that standard seriously, it just destroys any
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  cheap or casual view of forgiveness you might have.
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  It makes you realize. How much you need a
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  righteousness that isn't your own.
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  It grows the desire. For both justification and
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  sanctification, because you see how high the bar is and seeing
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  that high bar. Should drive us to one place to
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  setting the mind on. Christ.
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  You have to be frequently thinking about the crucified and
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  risen Christ. He is the food for this hunger.
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  And the cross reveals 2 things at once.
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  What are they? First the.
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  Incredible cost of righteousness, what it took to
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  satisfy God's justice and 2nd, the absolute sufficiency of the
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  righteousness he gives. So when you look at the.
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  Cross it comforts your conscience because the debt is
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  paid, yes, but. At the same time, it stirs up a
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  hatred for the very sin that put him there.
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  That contemplation keeps your appetite sharp and focused on
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  the right thing becoming more like Him.
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  But our appetites do get dull. We all go through periods of
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  spiritual coldness. So what's the practice?
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  Then sustaining the. Appetite through repentance.
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  This means when you feel that coldness setting in, you don't
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  just ignore it, you bring it to God.
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  You have to be honest about. Honest confession.
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  Of dullness and confess the specific things that are killing
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  your appetite greed, lust, bitterness or just you know
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  being so preoccupied with entertainment and distractions
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  spiritual junk food that's. What it is?
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  It fills you up but gives you no nourishment.
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  And so you pray. Like David in Psalm 51, restore
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  to me the joy of your salvation and ask God to create a new
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  clean heart in you. And we should remember.
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  This is not just an individual thing.
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  There's a corporate calling here for the church.
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  Absolutely a. Whole church full of people who
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  are hungering and thirsting for righteousness is going to look
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  very different. They're not going to be
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  satisfied. With shallow teaching or worship
• 22:58
  that feels more like a concert. No, they'll.
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  Shape their whole life together around Scripture, not marketing
• 23:05
  trends. They'll even practice loving
• 23:09
  biblical discipline because they care about the purity of the
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  body. They'll do what Hebrew says and
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  stir one another up to love and good works.
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  So really, Matthew 5.6 is like the blueprint for the inner life
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  of the Kingdom. It's the very engine of desire.
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  The king blesses the soul that has been humbled and awakened by
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  grace, the soul whose life is defined by this persistent, God
• 23:30
  centered craving for righteousness in all its forms.
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  And the promise is. Certain they shall be, satisfied
• 23:36
  they shall be. So if that.
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  Longing for righteousness, even when it feels weak or it just
• 23:41
  aches in your soul. If that itself is not some
• 23:44
  random feeling, there's actually the evidence of God's work in
• 23:47
  your heart, and it's a down payment on that future eternal
• 23:49
  feast. How does knowing that,
• 23:52
  acknowledging that divine pledge change the way you're going to
• 23:55
  pray for an increased desire this week?