Jesus said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled (or they shall be satisfied)" (Matthew 5:6). So, when a man says, "Oh brothers, I have been trying so hard for victory over sin, but I have not got it", I can tell him on the basis of this verse that he is not really hungering and thirsting for a holy life. He is not really desperate about overcoming sin.

Consider how Jesus prayed to overcome sin. We know the fact that Christ was tempted on earth exactly like us and He never sinned, but it was not easy for Him. Hebrews 5 tells us about how Jesus faced temptation. We are told in Hebrews 4:15 that He was tempted in all points as we are, and then it goes on to say that this Christ is our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 5:6). It says further in verse 7, "In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety" . This is not speaking about the last day of His flesh in Gethsemane, but of the entire period that He was in the flesh on earth - for thirty-three and a half years: He offered up prayers and supplications.

Supplication means a specific request to His Father. They were not just general prayers saying, 'Bless Me,' but they were specific requests. And He offered up these prayers with loud crying and tears. Why in the world was He crying out loud and shedding tears when He prayed? Would Jesus pray like that? Can you think of a time in your life where you prayed with tears? Maybe if your child was sick, or if you lost something which you wanted badly, you may have cried and prayed to God, but Jesus wasn't praying for any such thing. Have you ever prayed with loud crying? Maybe when somebody died or something tragic happened, but Jesus wasn't praying on such occasions. It says He was praying with loud crying and tears to the One (that is the Father) Who was able to save Him from death. And He was heard because of His godly fear.

Now there are a number of things that that verse teaches about what it means to hunger and thirst for righteousness. Jesus did not have righteousness offered to Him on a platter in a way different from us. He had to struggle and fight for it, hunger and thirst for it, just like us, because He was a Man like us, in order to be an example for us. He faced every situation, every temptation that we face, and He faced it the way we have to face it, in order to overcome that temptation. That is the meaning of praying to the One able to save Him from death.

What death is Scripture talking about? Jesus was not afraid of going to Calvary. He loved us so much that He would be willing to go to a thousand Calvarys to save us from our sins. He was not afraid of physical death. There are Christian martyrs who have gone singing to their deaths. How could Jesus ever be afraid of that? It also says that His prayer "was heard," but He was not saved from physical death. So how was His prayer heard? Both those statements indicate that it was another kind of death that He was praying to be saved from.

The Bible speaks about physical death and spiritual death. James 1 verse 15 says, "When sin is accomplished, it brings forth death." When you are tempted and yield, it leads to sin, and that ends in death. That is the death Jesus is asking to be saved from, in the moment of temptation: that there would not even be a smell of the spiritual death of sin brought about by Him responding to temptation in any way - in thought, attitude, motive, word, or deed. There should be no smell of sin. And because He was so desperately eager to be totally pure, to be pleasing to the Father, He had to pray with loud crying and tears.

For 30 years in Nazareth, and three and half years in His ministry (in all the days of His flesh), He prayed, "Father, I never want to sin. I never want to do My Own will, (that's the root of all sin)." He prayed and struggled in Gethsemanefor that same thing, sweating as great drops of blood, because He wanted never to do His Own will and He was heard because of His godly fear.

So what is the mark of godly fear, according to this verse? One mark of godly fear is that you cry out desperately that you will not displease God in any way. And He was saved, His prayers were heard, He never sinned. Perhaps this is the reason why we sin - because we are not so desperate to be saved from it. The Bible says, "Flee from immorality." Herein lies the secret of living a godly life. The first step is, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness." And there is a promise: you will be filled. There is no doubt about it.