Righteous, Dude!

Alas. I did not really find what I was looking for. I was hoping I could find a specific scripture passage that succinctly defined “righteousness.” The closest thing I found was Romans 8:10 which seems to suggest that “sin” and “righteousness” are opposites. Here are some more of the puzzle pieces that may be a part of coming up with a complete definition.

• According to Vine’s Expository of New Testament Words, dikaiosune (translated “righteousness” in Romans 3) is defined as “the character or quality of being right or just.”


• The Greek-English Lexicon of New Testament Words defines it as: “the state of him who is such as he ought to be.”


• Unger’s Bible Dictionary says it is “purity of heart and rectitude of life; the being and doing right.”


• Righteousness is both something that describes a person’s character/attributes as well as something we practice (I John 3:7).


• Righteousness is both something we pursue (I Timothy 6:1) and something “credited” to our account through faith.


• Righteousness is both something we possess now and hope for in the future (Galatians 5:5).


• Righteousness is provided through Jesus (Philippians 1:11).


• Righteousness is part of what God provides to protect us from the attacks of our enemy (Ephesians 6:14).

In a discussion of Romans 3:21-26 in The Gospel for Real Life, Jerry Bridges writes:

What is this righteousness from God--or, more literally stated, the righteousness of God? In the famous story of Martin Luther’s life, Luther at first thought the righteousness of God was the righteousness that God required for us in perfectly fulfilling His Law. Because he realized more and more he could not possible measure up to that impossible demand, he grew increasingly angry with God. At one time he had exclaimed, “Love God? I hate him.” Eventually he came to realize that the righteousness of God was that which God provided for us. At that time he said, “Thereupon I felt myself reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise.

What then is this righteousness from God that Paul announces to us, and over which Martin Luther struggled? It is a righteousness that He both requires and provides for us. It is the righteousness that He requires be cause it must full satisfy the utmost demands of His Law, both in its precepts and penalty. For although this righteousness is apart from Law as far as we are concerned, it is not as far as God is concerned. Rather it must be a righteousness that both perfectly fulfills the righteous requirements of His Law and satisfies the demands of His justice toward those who have broken His Law.

This righteousness from God, the, is nothing less than the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, who, through His sinless life and His death in obedience to the Father’s will, perfectly fulfilled the Law of God in both its precepts and its penalty.