He Is the Blessed Soul!
The blessed soul is one who sees the necessity of Christ's righteousness and earnestly desires to be made a partaker of it.
Thomas Brooks emphasizes the profound necessity of Christ's righteousness for justification and sanctification, illustrating that true blessedness comes from a deep hunger and thirst for this righteousness. He contrasts the believer's own unrighteousness, likening it to filthy rags, with the perfect righteousness of Christ, which is freely offered to sinners. Brooks encourages believers to earnestly seek both imputed and imparted righteousness, as this pursuit leads to spiritual fulfillment and transformation. He highlights that those who genuinely desire the qualities of the new nature, as described in Galatians, are indeed the blessed souls who will ultimately be satisfied. The sermon calls for a sincere longing for Christ's righteousness, akin to a desperate need for food and water.
Text
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness." Matthew 5:6
He who sees an absolute necessity of the righteousness of Christ to justify him, and to enable him to stand boldly before the throne of God; he who sees his own righteousness to be but as filthy rags, Isaiah 64:4; to be but as dross and dung, Philip. 3:7-8; he who sees the Lord Jesus Christ, with all his riches and righteousness, clearly and freely offered to poor sinners in the everlasting gospel; he who in the gospel-mirror sees Christ, who knew no sin, to be made sin for him, that that he may be made the righteousness of God in Christ, 2 Cor. 5:21; he who in the same mirror sees Christ to be made wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, to all who are sincerely willing to make a venture of their immortal souls and eternal estates upon him and his righteousness; and he who sees the righteousness of Christ to be a most perfect, pure, complete, spotless, matchless, infinite righteousness; and under these apprehensions and persuasions is carried out in earnest and unsatisfied hungerings and thirstings, to be made a partaker of Christ's righteousness, and to be assured of his righteousness, and to put on his righteousness as a royal robe, Isaiah 61:10--he is the blessed soul!
And he who hungers and thirsts after the righteousness of Christ imparted, as well as after the righteousness of Christ imputed; after the righteousness of sanctification, as well as after the righteousness of justification--he is the blessed soul!, and shall at last be filled.
The righteousness of sanctification, or imparted righteousness, lies in the Spirit's infusing into the soul those holy principles, divine qualities, or supernatural graces, that the apostle mentions in that Gal. 5:22-23. These habits of grace, which are distinguished by the names of faith, love, hope, meekness, etc., are nothing else but the new nature or new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness, Eph. 4:24. He who hungers and thirsts after the righteousness of sanctification, out of a deep serious sense of his own unrighteousness; he who hungers and thirsts after the righteousness of sanctification, as earnestly as hungry men do for food, or as thirsty men do for drink, or as the hunted deer does after the water brooks--he is the blessed soul, and shall at last be filled.
Sermon Outline
- I. The Necessity of Christ's Righteousness
- A. Seeing our own righteousness as filthy rags
- B. Seeing Christ's righteousness as perfect and complete
- II. The Blessing of Hungering and Thirsting
- A. For the righteousness of Christ imparted and imputed
- B. For the righteousness of sanctification
- III. The Characteristics of the Blessed Soul
- A. Serious sense of own unrighteousness
- B. Earnest hunger and thirst for righteousness
Key Quotes
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” — Thomas Brooks
“He who sees an absolute necessity of the righteousness of Christ to justify him, and to enable him to stand boldly before the throne of God;” — Thomas Brooks
Application Points
- We must have a deep serious sense of our own unrighteousness in order to hunger and thirst for the righteousness of Christ.
- We must earnestly desire the holy principles and divine qualities of the new nature in order to hunger and thirst for the righteousness of sanctification.
- We can obtain the righteousness of Christ through faith in Him, which is imputed to us and imparted to us through the Holy Spirit.