What would it look like to genuinely hunger and thirst for righteousness? In the church, we often make the mistake of trying to become more righteous in our own strength. As we hunger and thirst for righteousness, we devise well-intentioned checklists to feel better about our personal holiness. We vow to pray more, read more, serve more, give more, and go to church more. Then we burn ourselves out — going from one spiritual dry spell to the next. Unless our motives for obedience are deeply rooted in faith and love for our Savior, these exercises invariably begin to feel like slavery. Worse still, these taxing deeds will not please the Father. The Bible teaches us that our works are only pleasing to the Father if they are sourced by our faith in Christ, “for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23).
NOTE: This point often causes confusion. How could a good deed be sinful in the eyes of God? For a moment, imagine this scenario. A husband comes home late one evening after spending the day working hard to provide for his wife and family. He enters the house with a box of chocolates for his wife. He comes to her side with a bouquet of flowers under his arm. He kisses her, tells her how much she means to him, and even reads her a love poem. But as he presents the flowers to her, the wife catches the scent of strange perfume, and she sees lipstick on his collar. In that one instant, all of the husband’s “good deeds” would become utterly worthless — even insulting — to the wife, because they were offered in the absence of genuine love and faithfulness. Likewise, our God is a jealous Bridegroom; He wants your heart!
It is no accident that Jesus chose the adulterous Samaritan woman of John 4 as His audience in teaching about the power of His gospel to quench our deepest thirsts. Like us, this woman was notorious for giving her affections to anyone or anything that could provide even a moment of security, value, joy, or meaning. But worldly pursuits always left her empty and ashamed. Like this woman, we also turn our eyes away from our Bridegroom in pursuit of petty idols. Yet our deepest and most desperate thirsts — for righteousness, love, security, value, joy, and meaning — will never be ultimately quenched unless they are quenched in Christ alone!
In this life, we tend to mimic whatever we admire or worship. Think of young boys running around pretending to be a superhero after watching a movie. When we encounter Christ in the Scriptures, we are called to the same reaction. Those who genuinely worship the Lord will seek to become like Him.
Our hunger and thirst for righteousness is sourced by a desire to be conformed into His image. Yet this lifelong process of sanctification is not sourced by our strength; it is sourced by the strength of the One who now dwells within us. The pursuit of holiness can be summed up with the exhortation that we must know and love Christ enough to die to our own desires, so that Christ can shine through us (Galatians 2:20). We are called to crucify the sinful nature of our hearts — engaging in the war between flesh and spirit. Like our Savior, we must embrace God’s desires for our lives above our own — even when it’s painful.
Satisfied in Christ!
In John’s Gospel, thirst is a big theme. In fact, Jesus mentions thirst (διψάω) on four occasions in the Gospel of John. When Jesus encountered the adulterous Samaritan woman at the well, He promised living water and told her, “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again” (John 4:14). Two chapters later, Jesus tells the crowd of five-thousand: “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35). Again in the next chapter, Jesus declares, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink” (John 7:37). Satisfaction is not to be found in our own duties, deeds, and strivings. Jesus Christ is the righteousness for which we hunger and thirst. He alone satisfies our souls. In the midst of all our present sufferings, He alone is enough to satisfy. And while our best deeds (born of faith in Christ) are greatly pleasing to the Father, they are only pleasing to the Father because Jesus even redeems and cleanses our obedience.
The fourth instance, in which John’s Gospel mentions the word “thirst,” occurs in the last moments of Jesus’ life as He agonizes upon the Cross.
Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit (John 19:28-30).
Stop for a moment, and ponder the meaning of verse 28. At the climax of Scripture — the Cross of Christ — Jesus felt compelled to announce, “I thirst.” This is not merely an announcement that Jesus is parched. In fact, John tells us that Jesus felt compelled to announce his thirst in order to fulfill Scripture. It was because Jesus knew that “all was now finished.” So we must ask ourselves: “What does the completion of Christ’s earthly ministry have to do with thirst”?
Throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus taught that all who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied. He promised His followers that they would never thirst again if only they sought to be satisfied in Him. Jesus portrayed Himself as the solution for our thirsts and as the ultimate remedy that would bring forth springs of everlasting righteousness from within us!
Yet upon the Cross, He cried out, “I thirst!” This is the marvelous exchange of the gospel. Jesus was burdened under the weight and filth of our sin. In bearing the weight of our sins, Jesus also bore the torrent of God’s wrath, which we deserved. Yet this is only half of the gospel exchange. Upon the Cross, Jesus Christ clothed us with His own perfect righteousness.
Upon the Cross, Jesus made good on His promise to the Samaritan woman. We (who have never known true righteousness) are no longer hopeless to quench our thirst for righteousness, because He (who had only known perfect righteousness for all eternity) hung upon a Cross and gave His righteousness away! How precious are the words: “I thirst.” For the first time in all eternity, our God took on flesh and experienced the crippling thirst that comes from lacking righteousness.
We are forever satisfied, because our God suffered thirst. So drink deeply. This water is precious!
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