Jesus once said Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. At first glance – we can think – oh great! Just another bunch of rules. But the one thing that Jesus wasn’t into was religious rules.  So what did He mean?

You know, by and large, we all want to live a good life, to do the right thing, but is it possible? It's taking this goody two-shoes thing a bit too far. Sure, murder is out, shoplifting is out, rape is out, they're all bad things, but a bit of creative accounting on the old tax return, that's just one of the national sports, isn't it?

So when Jesus comes along and says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness," our reaction is "Well, I hunger and thirst for a few things, a good meal, more money, a better job, but righteousness? Isn't this just it, more rules, and more regulations, just what I need in my life? But is that really what Jesus was talking about?

I have a confession to make. A few years ago before I became a Christian, I looked at this whole Christianity gig, and I thought this is just a bunch of rules. I have enough rules in my life. At the time I was in the army. I was an officer in the Australian army, and I thought, "Well, there are plenty of rules there. You've got to have short hair, you've got to march, and you've got to pass your physical exam. I mean there were enough rules in my life. And then there's the rules of law, and then there's a whole bunch of social rules we have, and I thought, "Who needs more rules in their life?"

But as I read in the Gospels, in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John about Jesus, I thought, "Hey, this Jesus is my kind of person." In fact, I wonder whether Jesus was maybe a baby boomer, because He was 180 degrees the other way. The one thing our Jesus was not into was religious rules and yet He says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they will be filled".

What does it mean to be blessed? When Jesus uses that word, He's saying, "Look, there's a special joy, a special satisfaction, a special something that you can get out of me that you can't get out of anyone else. There's no deep satisfaction anywhere else except in me. And He says, "When I bless you, I'm blessing you with all the riches of heaven, the whole kingdom of God and all the joy that comes with that." "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness because they will be filled."

Now our religious stereo-type goes, "Well, Jesus is talking about a bunch of rules." But let's look at it from a different perspective, from 180 degrees the other way, from Jesus' perspective. Jesus isn't talking about religious rules. He is talking about a relationship.

What do we understand by righteousness? I guess righteousness is doing the right thing. Righteousness is a doing word, and the moment we have "doing the right thing", we can say well, there must be rules to arbitrate whether it's right or wrong. So we as people create rules and regulations that define what is right and what is wrong. When we think about it, we would be amazed at how many stupid little rules that we have.

When I was growing up, you weren't allowed to put your elbows on the table when you were eating, and I still try to teach my kids; don't stick your elbows on the table when you're eating. Now I guess that's good etiquette, but it doesn't really make a difference whether we put our elbows on the table. I mean in the scheme of things, does it really matter? We love to make rules.

In fact, every other religion and belief system, other than Christianity, is based on rules. You do the right thing and you advance. You perform and you get rewarded. A lawyer asked Jesus, "What must we do to do the things that God requires?" Well, it's not a bad question. And Jesus replied, "The work of God is this, that you believe in Me." So the lawyer has a picture in his mind of there's got to be rules and regulations. I've got to have a list of prescriptive things. If I do these things I'm in. I'm in God's favor; I make it to heaven, and Jesus said the thing that you need to do is believe in Me. So for Jesus it wasn't about rules; it was about relationship.

I went to Bible College not long after I became a Christian, and I studied theology. And we spent a lot of time on this concept of righteousness, the righteousness of God, and I knew all the theory. I had it all in my head, but it never really dropped into my heart until I listened to a woman called Joyce Meyer talk about this question of righteousness. It worked for me. So let me run her explanation by you, and see if it works for you too.

She talks about our "who" and our "do". We think that if we do good things that we'll make it into God's favor, that we'll have eternal life. Most people in this country think, well, I'm kind of a good person. I'm not a chain-saw murderer, or rapist, or a thief, or anything. We're kind of good enough. If there's a god, I'm sure I'll make it into heaven. So we think that we have to do the right thing.

But what Jesus says is, "when you believe in Me, it's not your "do" that I'm interested in. What changes is your "who"." The moment we believe in Jesus, who we are in God's eyes changes. Because all the things that we've done wrong, all our failures, all our sins (I know it's not a very popular word.) If we look into our hearts, we can see the ugly parts of our personalities. All the things that we have done wrong are washed away.

Because when Jesus was nailed to that cross, He was the perfect sacrifice. He paid for all those things, so who I am changes. God looks at me as cleanly as purely as though I were Jesus Himself. You say, "How can that be"? Well, because the sense of justice, the sense of righteousness of God has been fulfilled when the perfect sacrifice, Jesus, paid for my sins and, indeed, paid for your sins.

The moment you and I believe that Jesus is our Savior, we have eternal life. Who we are changes; we become a child of God. And as we have a relationship, as we love God, as we enjoy Him, what we do changes.

So first, our "who" changes and then our "do" follows along afterwards. It's kind of like being married. Now that I'm married (it may surprise you), I don't go out with other women. Before I met my wife, I used to go out with other women. Now, not many granted, but I went out with one or two other women. I had the liberty to do that in a right way, and it was the natural thing to do. But now that I'm married, I don't do that any more.

Why don't I do it? Well, there are two answers to that. One, is because to do it is wrong. It's against our natural laws of being married; it's against the rules and regulations. And the other is because actually I love my wife, I enjoy our relationship. I'm fulfilled and satisfied in our marriage. Now if you said to me, "Berni, which one of those two is more important to you"? I would say to you, "The second". It is natural for me not to go out with other women, because I love my wife; I'm having a ball.

So who I am has changed. I am now her husband. And now that my "who" has changed, and I'm enjoying who I am, the "do", the doing the right thing follows as naturally as night follows day. And that's what Jesus is saying here. Righteousness is not about doing the right thing. Righteousness is about having a relationship with God, and then what we do changes down the track.

In fact, one translation of this verse says this, "You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. His food and drink is the best meal you'll ever eat." Jesus wants us to have an appetite for Him, to be hungry and thirsty for Him.

I remember being in the army and being on survival exercises and being so hungry and so thirsty. And after one of these exercises, we came home and sat down, a friend of mine and I, to a pizza at the Pizza Hut and a glass of coke. You cannot believe how satisfying that was.

That's the satisfaction that Jesus wants us to have. He wants us to hunger and thirst for Him, and to be so deeply satisfied that we will change, that our behavior will change. Does He want us to change our behavior first? No! He wants us to have a relationship with Him, and as certainly as night follows day, the "do" will change.