Verse 6 provides another characteristic that receives God’s blessings. This is the character trait that hungers and thirsts for righteousness. Most people would describe hunger as a desire or a need for nourishment, and thirst as a desire or a need to drink water or liquids.
EXPOSITION OF VERSE 6
“Blessed are those.” Jesus taught that to be blessed by God is to be in a state of spiritual well-being and approval from God which is manifested through communion with God. This communion involves spiritually communicating and walking in life with God.
“who hunger and thirst.” Hunger and thirst are cravings of the living, not the dead. In this context, these cravings refer to the hunger and thirst of the spirit. Those whom the Holy Spirit has regenerated are spiritually alive and have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. The hunger and thirst spoken of here in verse 6 is experienced spiritually by those who genuinely seek God. It is not merely an awareness of hunger and thirst but an intense desire accompanied by a relentless pursuit of righteousness.
There are two aspects of hunger and thirst to consider. One aspect is that this hunger and thirst is an existential craving for the righteousness of God that is required for a sanctifying walk with God. The second aspect is that this craving is a recurring need that must be quenched continually.
We should also note that this hunger and thirst is not merely a notification from our spirit that it is time to eat and drink the things of God. This is an existential and essential pang for something, in this case, for righteousness.
“for righteousness.” A righteous person may be defined as a devotee to pious living according to the law of God. But Jesus uses the word righteousness here in a more comprehensive sense. He was fully aware of the meaning of righteousness, which includes imputation and sanctification, which are a state of righteousness and a life of obedience to God. This is the more comprehensive view of righteousness, including the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to the believer and the sanctification that comes from walking with God in Christ through the instrumentality of the Holy Spirit. It is an application of the imputed righteousness to the believer’s life.
God justifies the Christian who believes in Jesus on the ground of Christ’s merited righteousness, which is imputed to the believer by God. The believer is thus legally and irrevocably deemed righteous before God. And God not only justifies but also adopts the believer with the promise of eternal life.
But this righteousness that Jesus speaks of also has another facet. Our behavior and our works must be obedient to God. This points to sanctification. In fact, Jesus tells Christians that “you therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). “Although we cannot attain such perfection in this life, it is the goal pursued by all those who have become children of the Father (Phil. 3:12, 13).”[1] God gives the Christian both an inner spiritual righteousness and an outward conduct of righteousness.
“for they shall be satisfied.” The response of God to what Jesus has been teaching in the prior beatitudes and the first phrase of the fourth beatitude is stated in this phrase. Jesus is teaching that when the regenerate sinner 1) recognizes his or her own spiritual impoverishment (v. 3); 2) comes to Jesus with a mourning of despair, knowing that he or she has no ability to remove the guilt of his or her sins (v. 4); 3) possesses the patience and obedience to humbly submit to the authority and will of God (v. 5); 4) has an intense desire for and a relentless pursuit of righteousness (v. 6); and 5) proceeds to patiently and obediently and with a bankrupt and humble spirit, hunger and thirst for the comfort, support and eternal salvation that only a gracious God through Christ can provide, that is, RIGHTEOUSNESS (vv. 3-6), then he or she will receive God’s favor and God will graciously fill the believer with the blessings of the gospel of Christ which provides satisfaction (v. 6).
What is this satisfaction? It is the eternal favor of God and the blessings of the gospel of Christ. Are the regenerate believers to seek satisfaction or blessing? Jesus tells us what to seek―those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. The regenerate sinner who desires God must seek righteousness. Those seeking the righteousness of Jesus must hunger and thirst for that righteousness, not for blessing or satisfaction. The righteousness believers seek is Christ’s imputed righteousness, which provides the ground for God’s gracious justification, which legally deems the sinner righteous instantly upon belief in Christ. Justification follows God’s adoption of the believer and His promise of heavenly eternal inheritance (Eph. 1:11-14).
The sinner can never find righteousness, blessing, or this satisfaction apart from God. It is a gift from God. But once a sinner believes in Christ and that Jesus died on the cross for the sinner’s sins, God instantaneously fills the sinner by imputing the merited righteousness of Christ to the sinner, and He views that sinner in the righteousness of Christ and no longer sees the sinner as a debtor under the law. The sinner is forever freed from the yoke of the law and placed under the covenant of grace and indwelt with the Holy Spirit as the guarantee of the sinner’s eternal inheritance (Eph. 1:13, 14).
By recognizing his or her need for God’s grace, the righteousness of Christ is imputed to the sinner, and God fills the sinner with the blessings of the gospel, and he or she is satisfied. Hendriksen writes of this satisfaction in his commentary on the book of Matthew.
How does this hunger and thirst for righteousness become fully satisfied? By the imputation of Christ’s merits. Thus we obtain a righteousness of state. By the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Thus we obtain a righteousness of inner condition and outward conduct. Cf. Rom. 8:3-5; II Cor. 3:18; II Thess. 2:13. These two are inseparable: those for whom Christ died are sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, those whose sins are forgiven render the sacrifice of thanksgiving.[2]
FINAL THOUGHTS
In these first four beatitudes, Jesus speaks of the characteristics necessary for all regenerate sinners who are seeking God. However, we should note that these characteristics also represent the character traits of all Christians when they commune with God. Though a Christian has the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and indeed could not be described as the same bankrupt spirit that exists in the regenerate sinner who is going through the process of conversion to Christ, nevertheless, the Christian must approach God bankrupt of merit knowing that what he or she seeks can only come from God through Christ. So, the Christian, though redeemed and justified and adopted as a child of God, still must humbly seek God while mourning for his or her sins and existentially craving the righteousness of Christ while being spiritually aware that what he or she seeks cannot come from within but only from God. In this respect, the first four beatitudes describe the characteristics of the Christian in his or her sanctifying walk with God as well as the characteristics of the regenerate sinner initially seeking Christ.
[1] R.C. Sproul, gen. ed., The Reformation Study Bible, Matthew, n. 5:3, (Reformation Trust Publishing, 2015 (ESV)), 1678.
[2] William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary, Matthew (Baker Academic 1973), 274.
