In this Beatitude, Jesus is emphasizing the strong desire that every disciple should have for justice. This is why he uses words like hunger and thirst. We saw that we should have this kind of desire to be right with God.
In this article, we will take the next step, we will go to the next level. Here is the next desire that we should have.
2 – THE DESIRE TO BE RIGHT WITH OURSELVES
Yes, the second desire is to be right with us. Even though we have this desire to be in the presence of God, to please Him, and to obey Him, we struggle with our human and sinful nature.
It is like Isaiah, when he contemplated God and His majesty in the Temple. Right after that he looked at himself and confessed that he was impure.
Even though we recognize that we are sinners we still have the desire to be right. The desire is there anyway.
- The struggle against our human nature –
Even though we were saved, transformed, and regenerated, we still have our human and sinful nature as part of our being. And we will struggle with that our whole life, until we die. The apostle Paul is the one who exemplifies that struggle and shares it with us:
Rom. 7:21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
Rom. 7:22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law;
Rom. 7:23 But I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.
Rom. 7:24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
Rom. 7:25 Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord! ¶ So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
In this text we see Paul’s desire to do the right thing, and the realization that he could not because of his human and sinful nature. It is important for us to understand that Paul here in this text is not talking about a time before he met Jesus and was saved, no, he is talking about a struggle that he had in his Christian journey.
My friends, did you ever have that realization? Did you ever come to the conclusion that there are many things that you would like to do, that are good, but you just keep doing the wrong thing?
There is a war inside of us, and only with the grace and power of God will we be able to win.
But do not forget that we must have the desire to be right. This beatitude is for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Have a blessed week,
Pastor Lucas