I am a Jesus pusher!!! “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). In the New Covenant, Jesus gives new contextual experience to righteousness. Matthew uses the Greek word “dikaiosyne,” translated righteousness, six times. Four uses are found in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:6, 10, 20; 6:33); two uses are found in connection with the ministry of John the Baptist (Matthew 3:15; 21:32). As we mourn over our state of helplessness, we experience the infusion of the nature of God (meekness). The presence of His nature creates the hungering and thirsting to be in a right state before God.
Jesus clearly contrasts righteousness in the New Covenant with that of the Old Covenant. “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). No one can comprehend how any state of righteousness could exist beyond him or her. Obviously, if the possibility of entering the Kingdom of Heaven requires righteousness beyond the scribes and Pharisees, they are not in the Kingdom. In intimacy with Jesus, the holiness of the Kingdom relationship is found. Righteousness is Jesus! I am a Jesus pusher!!!