Evaluating Your Righteousness

GracetoYou.org ^ | 1993 | John MacArthur, Grace Community Church

[metmom]

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied" (Matt. 5:6).

Your relationship with God is the measure of your righteousness.

Righteousness means "to be right with God." When you hunger and thirst for righteousness, you passionately desire an ongoing and ever-maturing relationship with God Himself.

Righteousness begins with salvation and continues in sanctification. Only after you abandon all self- righteousness and hunger for salvation, will you be cleansed from sin and made righteous in Christ. Then you embark on a lifelong process of becoming as righteous as Christ—a process that will culminate when you are in His presence fully glorified (Rom. 8:29-30; 1 John 3:2). There's always need for improvement in this life (Phil. 3:12-14), but satisfaction comes in communing with Christ and growing in His grace.

You can know if you're hungering and thirsting for righteousness by asking yourself some simple questions. First, are you dissatisfied with your sin? Self- satisfaction is impossible if you are aware of your sin and grieve when you fall short of God's holy standard.

Second, do external things satisfy your longings? A hungry man isn't satisfied until he eats. A thirsty man isn't satisfied until he drinks. When you hunger and thirst after righteousness, only God's righteousness can satisfy you.

Third, do you have an appetite for God's Word? Hungry people don't need to be told to eat. It's instinctive! Spiritual hunger will drive you to feed on the Word to learn what God says about increasing in righteousness.

Fourth, are you content amid difficulties? A hungry soul is content despite the pain it goes through because it sees every trial as a means by which God is teaching greater righteousness. If you react with anger or resentment when things go wrong, you're seeking superficial happiness.

Finally, are your hunger and thirst unconditional? The rich young ruler in Matthew 19 knew there was a void in his life but was unwilling to give up his possessions. His hunger was conditional.

Christ will fully satisfy every longing of your heart, yet you will also constantly desire more of His righteousness. That's the blessed paradox of hungering and thirsting after righteousness.

Suggestions for Prayer

Read Psalm 112 as a hymn of praise to God.

For Further Study

Read the following verses, noting how God satisfies those who trust in Him: Psalm 34:10; 107:9; Isaiah 55:1-3; John 4:14; 6:35.

[metmom]

Studying God’s Word ping

[DannyTN]

I’m counting on the imputed righteousness of Jesus.

[cuban leaf]

Regarding “appetite for God’s word”.

I like what Michael Heiser says: Reading the bible and studying the bible are two different things. Just reading it doesn’t help much. The first example in the bible itself is here:

Acts 8:30,31
So Philip ran up and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. 31“How can I,” he said, “unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

Most people have no idea just how often the NT quotes the OT, or the difference between the Septuagint and the Mesoretic text. Or how many different English translations of the original text there can be, some of them starkly different.

I’m in the middle of a truly fascinating book on the bible right now:
https://www.amazon.com/Unseen-Realm-Recovering-Supernatural-Worldview/dp/1577995562