On the Fourth Beatitude
455. What is the Lord's fourth precept for blessedness?
They who would be blessed must hunger and thirst after righteousness.
456. What is meant here by the word righteousness ?
Though this word may well stand for every virtue which the Christian ought to desire even as his meat and drink, yet should we here specially understand that righteousness of which, in the book of Daniel, it is said, An everlasting righteousness shall be brought in; that is, the justification of guilty man through grace and faith in Jesus Christ. Dan. ix. 24.
The Apostle Paul speaks thus: The righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God/ being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past. Rom. iii. 22-25.
457. Who are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness?
They who, while they love to do good, yet count not themselves righteous, nor rest on their own good works, but acknowledge themselves sinners, and guilty before God; and who, by the wish and prayer of faith, hunger and thirst after the justification of grace through Jesus Christ, as after spiritual meat and drink.
458. What does the Lord promise to them who hunger and thirst after righteousness?
That they shall be filled.
459. What is meant here by being filled?
As the filling or satisfying of the body produces, first, the cessation of the sense of hunger and thirst; secondly, the strengthening the body by food, so the filling of the soul means, first, the inward peace of the pardoned sinner; secondly, the acquisition of strength to do good, given by justifying grace. The perfect filling, however, of the soul created for the enjoyment of endless good is to follow in the life eternal, according to the words of the Psalmist: When I awake up after thy likeness, I shall be satisfied with it. Psalm xvii. 15.