What makes you feel satisfied?  In the 1960’s the word “righteous” was used to describe something we would refer to today as cool or awesome.  If you were in possession of something you thought was “righteous”, you were satisfied with what you had.  I remember I had a pretty righteous bike when I was in the 7^th grade.

What about when you’re hungry or thirsty?  The Mars Candy Company launched an ad campaign a few years ago replacing the word “Snickers” with the word “Satisfying” on Snickers candy bar wrappers.  I eat a lot of Snickers bars.  On hot, summer days, I prefer to drink only water.  Sugary drinks taste great, but they’re full of stuff that just makes me thirstier instead of satisfying my thirst.

Sometimes, we try to remedy dissatisfaction with what some call “retail therapy”.  Online shopping is my preferred method.  I can send gifts that bless others, download uplifting music, order edifying and spiritually instructive books and even get my hands on some cool “man toys”.  Unfortunately, even after an extended therapy session, the good feelings wear off when I look in my mailbox and find that envelope containing a demand for satisfaction of the debt I ran up buying all that stuff.  What if I can’t satisfy that debt and have to give back all my righteous stuff?  Did I put my hope and faith in the wrong things?

The Bible tells us only God is truly righteous.  Because of this, God requires that we be righteous to be in His presence.  The Bible also tells us none of us are righteous; that we have all sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God creating a separation between us and Him.  That’s a bummer.  So, what are we to do?  We need to get hungry and thirsty for God’s righteousness.  “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied.”.  That’s from Matthew chapter 5, verse 6.

What satisfies God’s requirement for righteousness; what removes the debt of sin that separates us from a righteous God?  The blood of Christ shed for our sins.  Jesus Christ paid our sin price, which was death, by willingly taking our place on our cross.  Colossians chapter 2, verses 13-14 says when we were dead in our sins and the impurity of our flesh, God made a way for us to be alive and to be together with Him.  He made a way for our sins to be forgiven.  God made it possible to have our sin debt, the charges of broken Biblical laws against us which would have been fatal for us, cancelled and taken out the way, removing the separation between us and God, by nailing that debt to the cross in the body of Jesus Christ His Son.

But, if Jesus only died for us, then the demands of death upon our lives would not be satisfied.  Hope in him would be the same as the satisfaction of owning a really nice car.  Both the hope and satisfaction would vanish when we die.  This is not the case with Christ who not only died to pay our sin debt, but also rose back to life to satisfy and defeat death forever for those who would confess and believe (Romans 10:9).  In Jesus Christ there is satisfaction resurrected for eternity and that satisfaction is yours to accept.

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