Making Righteousness Our Desire

Last night I discovered a listing of what is purported to be the top 100 Christian blogs that people link to on their Facebook pages. One of the titles caught my eyes, The King’s English. The author is Glen Scrivener who describes himself: “I’m not a linguist or historian.  I’m a minister in the Church of England and an evangelist in Eastbourne, UK.  I write as someone gripped by the Jesus of the Bible, but I don’t presume that you share my beliefs.” This is a website I think many readers here would enjoy. He’s currently in a series on the Sermon on the Mount, which is where we jump in for today’s sample. Click the title below to read at source, and then look around the rest of the blog.

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled

Genesis 15:1-6; Matthew 5:6

From the Bible we can think of “righteousness” in these terms:

– the goodness of God.

– the blessed life in action.

– setting the world to rights.

When seen in its true light, righteousness is incredibly attractive.  And incredibly elusive.

From its first mention in the Bible, “righteousness” is a consuming passion.  In Genesis 15, Abraham is taken outside for some star-gazing by the Word of the LORD.  Abraham is reassured of the promise of seed and he trusts this appearing LORD:

“he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.”  (Genesis 15:6)

Abraham is declared righteous for trusting in the LORD Christ.  This is the foundation of everything the Bible teaches on “righteousness.”  It’s what makes Abraham our father in the faith (Galatians 3:6ff).

And in Matthew 5 Jesus reiterates the teaching using an analogy drawn from eating:  those who “hunger and thirst after righteousness” will be “filled.”

It does not speak of “Those who have righteousness…” or “Those who act righteously…”  Christ’s illustration speaks of a lack of righteousness – a lack that’s felt very keenly.  The person poor in spirit, who mourns over their sin, who understands that they are not strong but meek – such a person knows their need for righteousness.  And precisely because of their hunger and thirst, they are filled.

This filling is not an earning, not a payment, not a reward.  The blessed person is a beggar through and through.  This filling does not come because we have something to offer.  It comes because we have nothing.

When does the filling happen?  Well there is a present and a future dimension.  We must take this beatitude in parallel with the others.  For all the beatitudes the blessing is present, but only because of a future state of affairs – a time when we “inherit the earth”, when we “see God”, etc, etc.  And so the “filling” most properly happens when Christ returns.  On that day we will no longer simply hunger and thirst for righteousness.  At that time Christ will establish His righteous reign on the earth and raise us to righteous, resurrection living.  But in the meantime we live with the certain promise of that future.  And we know the present blessing of our Father, brought as we are into Christ’s Kingdom.

Notice how this righteousness comes to us from outside ourselves.  Jesus does not speak of a “seed of righteousness” growing from within us or a “spark of righteousness” that needs fanning into flame.  When it comes to “our righteousness”, the only appropriate analogies are ones of desperate need.  But the famished are filled by Christ.

It’s a wonderful truth.  But all this teaching about righteousness “imputed/filled/credited/counted” to the believer has recently fallen on hard times.  It seems so impersonal.  Is righteousness really like internet banking?  Can it really be “credited” into my spiritual account?  Is it really like food and drink?  Can I just “fill up” on a meal of righteousness?  What sense does that make?

Well Jesus is not teaching us about some spiritual stuff called righteousness here.  He’s speaking about a reality that is incredibly personal. How personal?  Just read on a few verses to the last two beatitudes and notice the reasons why Christ’s people might be persecuted:

“Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake…
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you… for my sake.”  (Matthew 5:10-11)

Do you see the parallel?  Righteousness is equivalent to Jesus Himself.  Jesus is Righteousness.

“Righteousness” might be likened to a money transfer or to food and drink.  But that’s only because, in those illustrations, our own spiritual bankruptcy or hunger is being highlighted.  Most fundamentally, righteousness is Jesus.  He is the Goodness of God.  He is the Blessed Life in Action.  He is the Setting to Rights of the Whole World.  Righteousness is not fundamentally a state of affairs, He’s a Person.  To enter into righteousness (and for righteousness to enter into us) is not about possessing a moral quality but about possessing (and being possessed by) the LORD our Righteousness.

The Christian is simply the person who comes to the end of themselves.  They say “There is no goodness, blessedness or justice in me.”  Instead we crave Christ.  And we are filled.

The Importance of Staying Hungry

Stumbled on a most interesting website the other day, Blessed Economist.  In this recent post Hungry in Christchurch, he summarizes a sermon preached by Bill Johnson in Christchurch, NZ. 

In his sermon of the week, Bill Johnson spoke about hunger. He suggested that we get hungry by eating.

He also spoke of remaining hungry while coming into abundance of blessing. Our challenge is remain hungry while being full of the Spirit.

• Hunger illustrates humility.
• Hunger releases a capacity to dream.
• Hunger cause people to move outside the place of safety.

The Lord is releasing a gift of hunger.

• The gift of hunger is essential for the next season.
• The gift of hunger is a gift for people on whom he will pour out a blessing that is bigger than anything has been know before.
• The gift of hunger allows us to receive the blessing of the Lord, while remaining in the right place.

Bill quoted Ps 107:33-37.

33 He turns rivers into a wilderness,
And the springs of water into dry ground;
34 A fruitful land into barrenness,
For the wickedness of those who dwell in it.

Wickedness causes rivers to run dry and fruitful land becomes a wilderness. The key to understanding this is Luke 1:53.

He has filled the hungry with good things.
but has sent the rich away empty handed.

It is not that God dislikes the rich. He cannot bless those who have become satisfied with what they have and do not remain humble. He takes those who have been blessed and returns them to a place of need, so they can re-discover the source of their blessing, which is hunger. If blessing has caused us to wander he, out of mercy, removes the blessing, so that we will return to the source of our strength.

God blesses those who become hungry. In Psalm 107:35-37 this had happened.

35 He turns a wilderness into pools of water,
And dry land into watersprings.
36 There He makes the hungry dwell,
That they may establish a city for a dwelling place,
37 And sow fields and plant vineyards,
That they may yield a fruitful harvest.
Bill said that Psalm 107:36 is a prophetic decree for this generation.
36 There He makes the hungry dwell,
That they may establish a city for a dwelling place.

The hungry are given the unique privilege of establishing a city.
God is raising up companies of people who cry our constantly, “God, save my city!”

• The don’t just want individuals saved, they want the systems of the city saved.
• The want the way people do life to change.
• They want kingdom values to permeate every aspect of life.
• They want all interactions, including relationships, business, education impacted by the Spirit.
• They want everything to be impacted by his divine order.

God will entrust the destiny of the city to the hungry.

• He wants the hungry to define the DNA of the city.
• The foundational values will be defined by those who have remained humble, kept connected with the Spirit and the purposes of God.
• He wants the heart of the city to be shaped by those who have not become complacent and satisfied with what they obtained.
• He wants the nature of cities defined by hungry people.
• God will release favour and increase to the hungry.
• Their voice will impact the destiny of cities.
• Hungry people change the environment they live in.

The Lord is releasing a grace for remaining hungry while being blessed.

When I heard Bill Johnson’s message, I was stunned, because I remembered a description of the first communion service held when the first English settlers arrived in Christchurch in December 1850. The first ships had arrived at the Port of Lyttleton, but the settlers had not travelled over the hills to the site of the new city. On the Sunday, the settlers met in the second storey of a warehouse on Norwich Quay. The passengers, who had climbed upstairs on a ladder, sat on planks on packing cases. Here is the description of the event recorded in “Canterbury Sketches: Life from Early Days”.

The Psalm for the day, the 22nd, was wonderfully applicable to us. These are the verses I refer to, “And there he setteth the hungry that they may find them a city to dwell in; that they may plant their fruits and increase. He blesseth them so that they multiply exceedingly and suffereth not their cattle to decrease.” It seemed as if the Almighty had given us His blessing on our new life and may we not say on looking back through the long vista of years, that He has blessed many of us abundantly, and made us a prosperous and happy people?

The lectionary reading for that Sunday was Psalm 107 and the reader at the service read the same verses about the hungry establishing the city. So verse 36 is not just a prophecy for our generation, but a prophecy for the city of Christchurch.

The city has been devastated by the earthquake and left empty and barren. God is promising that the future of the city will not be shaped by powerful people who have forgotten him.

The future of the city will be shaped by the hungry. Their voice will have impact on the destiny of the city.

God is promising that the hungry will establish the city. He will bless them and their number will be greatly increased.

He makes the hungry dwell there,
that they may establish a city for a dwelling place.
They sowed.. and planted…
that yielded a fruitful harvest;
he blessed them,
and their numbers greatly increased.

The kingdom of God will be established in Christchurch through people who are hungry for the Spirit and a revelation of the glory of God.

 

Satisfying The Craving

Today’s item is jointly posted at Thinking Out Loud and Christianity 201

Several years ago, I introduced the modern worship song “Breathe” by the group Passion with something like this:

“Some of you have had to have a medical procedure where you’re told that 24 hours beforehand you’re to stop eating solid food. You may be a light eater generally, but once you’re told that can’t eat something, you find yourself really craving it.

“Then, they might tell you that for the last three hours prior to the procedure, you’re not to drink anything, either. You’ve probably gone longer without quenching your thirst, but once you reach that no drink stage, you suddenly find yourself aching for something in the beverage category.

“But the real kicker is when, five minutes before the procedure, they ask you stop breathing…”

I reminded our church that while the first two situations — being denied food and drink — are achievable in the short term, we all need to breathe. (Actually, Need to Breathe would be a great name for a band.) We simply can’t live without oxygen, and so also we should be hungry and thirsty for God.

This is the air I breathe
This is the air I breathe
Your holy presence
Living in me

This is my daily bread
This is my daily bread
Your very word
Spoken to me

And I, I’m desperate for You
And I, I’m lost without You

I relate this because this week we were at a Christian camp, and if you’ve ever been on the grounds of a Christian retreat or conference facility, you know there’s an unwritten rule that if you’re a guy, unless you’re swimming, skiing, windsurfing or water skiing, you’re supposed to keep your shirt on.

But Ontario experienced record high temperatures on the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, with temperatures hovering close to 30 ° Celsius all three days, which for our metricly challenged American friends is around 78 ° Fahrenheit. Beautiful sunshine. No black flies, mosquitoes or bees. No humidity. Reduced risk of sunburn in October.

I was craving maximum sunlight. So I climbed up a hill to what the kids call “the mountain” and doffed my t-shirt and stretched out on a rock in nothing but shorts and let the sunshine vitamin soak in; in the process becoming a human solar panel, absorbing the rays at just the right angle.

And I started thinking about the warmth of God’s Spirit that we’re supposed to experience as part of what the Bible considers normal Christian living.

the warmth = the comfort of God’s spirit
the sunshine = the spiritual ‘nutritional benefit’ of God’s presence

In a previous century, a songwriter wrote about “Heavenly sunshine, flooding my soul with glory divine.” We express things differently today, but the principle is the same; food, drink, oxygen, the light of the sun; all these analogies in nature exist to remind us of our need for God. A craving that is intended to be natural.

Just like a deer that craves
streams of water,
my whole being craves you, God.

^{Common English Bible Psalm 42:1}

But none of this would have struck me, and my Vitamin D fix would not have been fulfilling had I not first climbed the mountain… but we wouldn’t want to add another metaphor, would we?

In our culture, we really don’t know what it is to be physically hungry or thirsty. There’s always a snack bar just around the corner. Do we know what it means to truly be spiritually hungry? Have you ever experienced true spiritual hunger or thirst?

Watch ‘Breathe’ previously posted here with some additional thoughts