CHRIST JESUS' PERFECT & ETERNAL RIGHTEOUSNESS!

"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled." —Matthew 5:6 [KJV]

To thirst after happiness is natural. To seek it from wrong objects is natural. To desire to escape a hell of misery, and enjoy a place of happiness, is equally natural. If this may be called salvation, all men wish to be saved. The most wicked may wish to "die the death of the righteous, and that their last end may be like his." This every man is capable of as a rational, intelligent being. And many are striving to make themselves righteous in order to be saved. 

But to desire salvation in God's way, to hunger and thirst after Christ and His righteousness, is peculiar to the quickened only. The dead hunger not. Spiritual appetites spring from spiritual life. A natural man can as soon seek to fill his belly with the east wind, or allay his thirst with the sunbeams, as do this. To know ourselves to be miserable sinners, destitute of righteousness, to believe Christ has obtained it for us, and to hunger and thirst after it, this lies at the foundation of true godliness; this enters into the very essence of our religion. 

Such self-emptied, hungry, and thirsty souls are blessed: for they shall be filled; filled with all the blessings of Jesus' everlasting righteousness; acceptance with God, pardon of sins, and peace from God; filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ; with all the graces of God's Spirit on earth, and with all the fulness of God in glory. "This is the heritage of My servants, and their righteousness is of Me," saith precious Jesus.—Isaiah 54:17. "The skies pour down righteousness, the faithful open their hearts and receive it."—Isaiah 45:8. 

O, what delightful fellowship and intercourse subsist between heaven and earth; hungry souls and righteous Jesus! Says Bishop Hall, 'If Jesus had not said, "Blessed are those who hunger," I know not what could keep weak Christians from despair. Many times, all I can do is to find and complain I want Jesus; I wish to enjoy Him. Now this is my stay, He in mercy esteems us, not by having, but desiring also. There never was a soul miscarried with longing after grace. O blessed hunger that always ends in fulness! I am sorry I can but hunger, yet would not be full; for the blessing is promised to the hungry.' As verily as the righteous man, Jesus, wrought out righteousness for sinful man, all thirsty souls who come to Him shall be filled with righteousness. For He "fills the hungry with good things," while "He sends the rich (the self-righteous) empty away."— Luke 1:53.

Our new-born souls do ever crave 

For righteousness we've lost; 

That we in Jesus may be found, 

And by Him be made just. 

Lord, fill our hungry, thirsty souls, 

With satisfying food; 

Blest in Thy merits may we be, 

And pardon'd by Thy blood.

 

-preacher William Mason (1724-1797 A.D.)

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