Getting the Right Grip on Righteousness
Last Sunday, we entered a word study on “Righteousness” through the Sermon on the Mount. We are starting with the first time Jesus mentions “righteousness” and tracking with Him all the way through this section of Scripture. This is where Jesus begins, so we will start here as well:
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6, NIV).
We have defined “righteousness” as sharing in a total heart-agreement with God (a covenant). The most common way we can grasp this concept is through the marriage-covenant. Carrie and I share in the covenant of marriage. We share in a total heart-agreement under the authority of God and His Word. When so doing, we then are best able to share in a total heart-agreement on who we are to each other. This heart-agreement, or covenant, defines and binds our lives, our relationship with the Lord then also our relationship with one another.
To share in this type of total heart-agreement (or covenant) with God is not possible through any form of human-effort. To be able to share in a total heart-agreement with God is solely possible because of what Jesus has done for us by overcoming sin and death and through the renewing counsel and conviction of the Holy Spirit.
Reflecting back to our passage from Matthew: what I hunger and thirst for reveal my desires. What I have desires for reveals my true nature - either a sinful nature or a redeemed nature.
If I have an appetite for sin then I pursue and find delight within an agreement with a sinful life, therefore, I do not know, or want to know Jesus as Lord. I may come to church, say I know Jesus, but I remain dead in my sin and, unless I repent, I will spend eternity in hell, separated from God.
If I have an appetite for righteousness, then I pursue and find delight within an agreement with the One, Jesus, Who makes me righteous. My desire to delight in His righteousness reveals that, my once sinful nature, has been redeemed by the blood of Jesus and is being renewed by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, in that renewing, my desires are in agreement with His desires; I find delight in what delights my Lord!
Highland, I remain before the Lord, in prayer, asking Him to help us to keep with the fruit of repentance. My dearest Highland, oh, how I long for each of us to know Jesus as Lord, and to spend our days loving Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength!
I am dedicated to interceding for each us, who make up God’s Highland Tribe, asking Him to create and foster within us a hunger and thirst for righteousness, that we would be filled! In so doing, satisfied upon His love, we are then empowered by the Holy Spirit to love our neighbors as ourselves! That is where we’re going, Highland! That is where we are going! Are we hungry yet, Highland?
I love you,
Rob