In this post I quote some relevant articles from a few dictionaries showing what scholars are saying about righteousness and justification. You can evaluate my findings in their light.
This is the tenth and last of a series of posts on the concept of righteousness and justification in the scriptures. I’ve listed most (if not all) references to right, righteous, righteousness and just, justified and justification in the scriptures to do my own study on what the scriptures say about the concept.
Click on this link to go to the first post which has a summary and links to all.
Contents
The Bible Project
Dictionary of Paul and His Letters
Righteousness
In the Pauline corpus the teaching about the righteousness of God and the related doctrine of the justification of the sinner hold an important place. Though the centrality of these concepts in Pauline thought has in recent times been questioned (Schweitzer, Fitzmyer, Sanders), they have in the past been the object of vigorous discussion, especially since these terms have been widely affirmed as a key to Paul’s understanding of salvation. But while there has been broad scholarly consensus about the significance of these terms in Paul’s thought, there has not been agreement as to the precise meaning these terms have in Paul’s usage. …
1. Terminology, Background and Issues – 1.1.1 Etymology
1.1.1.1 Hebrew.
- Quell provides an excellent introduction to the issues that are at the basis of the Hebrew understanding of righteousness. The concept of righteousness in the Hebrew Bible emphasises the relational aspect of God and humanity in the context of a covenant. …
The Hebrew meaning of justice means more than the classical Greek idea of giving to everyone their due. Usually the word suggests Yahweh’s saving acts as evidence of God’s faithfulness to the covenant. For this meaning of righteousness of God, dikaiosyne is not as flexible as the Hebrew word.
In the Tannaitic literature of rabbinic Judaism there was a theological and semantic shift restricting sedeq and s`daqa to proper behaviour, with s`daqa being used primarily for almsgiving. God’s righteousness was increasingly understood as God’s willingness to protect and provide for the poor. This association was already present within the Hebrew Bible. …
1.1.1.2 Greek.
The richness of the Hebrew usage is generally well reproduced in the LXX. Of the relatively few instances in which sedeq, s`daqa and saddiq are not translated by dikai- words, eleemosyne and eleos (‘alms’, ‘mercy’) are employed for s`daqa. Similar evidence of this is found in the NT at Matthew 6.1. …
1.1.1.3 Latin.
In the Western Roman Empire, the Old Latin versions of the NT displaced the Greek NT, and Paul was consequently understood via the Latin Vulgate rendered dikaiosyne by iustitia (‘justice’). The legal connotation of this term in Roman Law was superimposed upon the word dikaiosyne, which Paul had employed. The Roman legal understanding of justice was in a distributive sense: to give to each their due, the bestowal of rewards and punishments according to merit. The OT sense of righteousness as grounded in covenantal relationship was weakened, and its place was taken by the courtroom image of a sinner before God’s righteous tribunal. Although righteousness in the OT had a legal aspect, it was that of a litigant being adjudged righteous before God before their enemies. The biblical image of the covenant between God and humanity had faded into the background, while the Latin context called to mind stark legal realities of the court. The shift in language from Hebrew to Greek to Latin resulted in an alteration in theological content as the words that were employed either overlaid the earlier meaning or signified something new in the receptor language.
1.1.1.4 English.
Modern English partakers of a double portion of Indo-European languages: a Germanic base from Anglo-Saxon as well as Latinate words from the Norman Conquest. Because of this characteristic of English, one can say either ‘to be righteous’ (from the Anglo-Saxon verb rightwisen meaning ‘to make right, or rightwise’), or ‘to be justified’ (a verbal form derived from ius, iuris and iustitia, meaning ‘to be declared just’). The semantic ranges of the two are not identical.
1. Terminology, Background and Issues – 1.1.2 Worldviews
1.1.2.1 Hebrew.
An essential component of Israel’s religious experience was that Yahweh was not only Lord of Law but also one faithful to it. God was faithful to the covenant. God’s righteousness was shown by his saving actions in accordance with this covenant relationship. A person was righteous by acting properly in regard to the covenant relationship with Yahweh. One’s relationship with others reflected the relational aspect of the covenant with Yahweh. Righteousness was understood in terms of being in proper relation to the covenant rather than in terms of ‘right’ or ethical conduct as determined by some abstract standard. When Judah says of Tamar, ‘She is more righteous than I’, he is referring to her being righteous in her pursuit of covenantal, familial responsibility (Gen 38.26). …
1. Terminology, Background and Issues – 1.2 OT Background
While the OT uses righteousness terminology in numerous contexts involving all areas of life, the touchstone of righteousness is Israel’s covenantal relationship with Yahweh. It is based on the standard of God’s covenant faithfulness. Righteousness is not primarily an ethical quality; rather it characterises the character or action of God who deals rightly within a covenant relationship and who establishes how others are to act within that relationship. ‘Shall not the judge of all the earth do what is right?’ (Gen 18.25). The covenant faithfulness of God, the righteousness of God, is shown by Yahweh’s saving acts. This salvation is variously experienced as Israel’s victory over enemies, or personal vindication of one’s innocence before God in the presence of one’s enemies, and it involves both soteriological and forensic elements. …
God’s faithfulness to deliver Israel is seen in the Servant of the Lord and Cyrus as God’s chosen leaders/deliverers (Is 42.6; 45.8,13,19). Covenant relationship is the basis or righteousness (Is 51.1). God promises to bring righteousness, which is often understood as deliverance or vindication (Is 51.5,8; 62.1-2). In sum, the covenant understanding of righteousness in the classical prophets relates persons to the living God and his covenantal purposes in restoring order to his creation, not to an abstract norm of conduct. …
2. Righteousness in Paul.
The noun ‘righteousness’ (dikaiosyne), its related adjective ‘righteous’ (dikaios), and the verb ‘to justify’, ‘to pronounce/treat as righteous’ or ‘put right’ (dikaioo) are found in the Pauline writings over 100 times. The sheer volume of occurrences in their various usages and meanings indicates the central place they had in the theology of the apostle.
2.1. Dikaiosyne.
Paul uses this word both in relationship to God and to human beings. In the latter case its ultimate origin is without exception the character and/or action of God. The term is used in various contexts or associations.
2.1.1. Righteousness Declared.
A distinctive usage is found where Paul states that righteousness in believers is the result of a word, or declaration, of God. In Romans 4, where Paul interprets Abraham’s relationship with God as a scriptural foundation for his understanding of believers’ ‘justification by faith’ (explained in Romans 1-3), righteousness is said to be ‘reckoned to’ (RSV) or ‘credited to’ (NIV) Abraham by God on the basis of Abraham’s believing/trusting in God (Rom 4.3,5,6,9,11,22), rather than on the basis of his works. In Galatians 3.6 Abraham’s faith in God is ‘reckoned to him as righteousness.’ Here, Abraham’s trusting submission to God is evaluated as ‘righteousness’.
2.1.2. Righteousness as Gift.
Closely related are those usages where righteousness is stated to be a gift of God reigning in the believer (Rom 5.17,21). Here it is seen as a new reality which dominates or directs the life in Christ (cf. Rom 8.10). According to Galatians 2.21, this righteousness results from God’s grace, for if it were possible to achieve it via obedience to the Law, Christ’s death would have been in vain. …
2.1.3. Righteousness of Faith.
Righteousness based on God’s word and work in Christ, a gift of God’s grace, comes to believers in the context and through the instrumentality of faith. Where righteousness and faith are related by Paul, it is almost always contrasted with a legalistic, or Law-oriented, righteousness. Thus in Rom 4.11, 13-14 the ‘righteousness of faith’ is said to be based neither on circumcision nor on the deeds of the law. …
2.1.4. Righteousness of Obedience.
A final context is the use of righteousness in an ethical sense, characterising the life of obedience of those who have been justified. Romans 6.13, 18-20 contrast lives/bodies as instruments or slaves of wickedness with lives yielded to God as instruments of righteousness. What is clearly in view here is the expected result of life lived in relationship with Christ, right living that is in keeping with God’s purposes. Righteousness (together with peace and joy) is that which marks the believer’s relationship with others (rather than judging or offending others) and is the result of God’s reign. …
2.2 Dikaios.
The adjective dikaios (‘upright’, ‘just’, ‘righteous’) is ascribed to both human beings and to God. When applied to persons, it defines them as those whose lives are in keeping with God’s purposes (Eph 6.1); who live before him in faithfulness (Rom 1.17; Gal 3.11); who are obedient to God’s commands (Rom 2.13; Gal 3.10; 1 Tim 1.9); live good, upright, virtuous lives (Rom 5.7; Phil 4.8; Tit 1.8); and exercise fairness and justice (Col 4.1). …
Paul’s conviction (Rom 5.19) that Christ’s obedience to God (in contrast with Adam’s disobedience) will result in ‘many being made righteous’ must be understood within the context of God’s Law, which reveals the righteous purposes of God. In terms of God’s will for humanity, the goal of God’s work in Christ is to transform humans into those who are righteous, whose lives are aligned with God’s purposes, and who, therefore, are in conformity with the image of Christ (2 Cor 3.18).
2.3. Dikaioo.
The verbal form of the noun righteousness, (dikaioo, ‘to justify’ RSV, NIV, NEB; ‘to put right’ TEV) is used almost always to describe that divine action which affects the sinner in such a way that the relation with God is altered or transformed (either
- Ontologically, as a change in nature; or
- Positionally, resulting from a judicial act; or
- Relationally , as one who was alienated and is now reconciled).
Everywhere this action of God, emerging from his nature as the righteous one, is seen as an act of grace and takes place in the context of the exercise of faith, or trust or believing in Jesus. …
There are several texts where this action of God is addressed not to the sinner but to those who are already ‘justified’. The setting for this action is always eschatological judgment (Rom 2.13; 8.33; Gal 5.4-5). The issue in these circumstances is not salvation (either by works or by faith). Rather, those who have been justified (by grace through faith) appear before ‘the judgment seat of Christ’ (2 Cor 5.10) where ‘the empirical reality of one’s life before God as ‘works’ will be revealed and evaluated’ (Cosgrove, 660). …
4. God’s Righteousness as Relation-Restoring Love
The history of interpretation, including the recent perspectives sketched above, reveals two facets;
- That the understanding of the righteousness of God has been largely dominated by Greek and Latin categories, where righteousness as a quality of God’s character is either given to us or makes us righteous, or it is the basis for God’s judicial pronouncement, declaring us righteous;
- That the more recent discussion, in seeking to take more seriously Paul’s grounding in the OT, has found the earlier understanding to be an inadequate explication of Paul’s meaning. Particularly important has been the insistence on the OT covenantal context of the righteousness of God as an interpretative background for Pauline formulations.
Within that OT context, and beside other meanings and nuances (Brunner), the idea of God’s righteousness appears prominently in salvation texts, where God’s redemptive action towards his covenant people is defined by this term. It is God’s righteousness which saves from enemies, from threatening situations, from the state of alienation from God. In such settings God’s righteousness is frequently defined by the terms ‘steadfast love’ and ‘faithfulness’ (e.g. Is 11.5; 16.5; Ps 5.7-8; 89.13-14; 98.2-3). These relational attributes are in some contexts virtually synonymous with ‘righteousness’ and ‘salvation’ (e.g. Ps 85.7-13). Thus God’s righteousness may be rendered as ‘saving deed’ or ‘relation-restoring love’.
Paul’s use of righteousness of God may best be understood against the background of this particular OT concept.
(p827-836, Ed. Hawthorne, Martin, Reid, Dictionary of Paul and his Letters).
Justification
1. The Meaning of the Term Justification.
The Pauline vocabulary relating to justification is grounded in the OT and seems to express the notion of ‘rightness’ or ‘rectitude’ rather than ‘righteousness’. The OT prefers the verb rather than the noun, presumably thereby indicating that justification results from an action of God whereby an individual is set in a right relationship with God – that is, vindicated or declared to be in the right. Paul echoes this emphasis, using the verb dikaioo, ‘to justify’, relatively often, but generally avoiding using the noun dikaiosis, ‘justification’ (Rom 4.25). The verb denotes God’s powerful, cosmic and universal action in effecting a change in the situation between sinful humanity and God, by which God is able to acquit and vindicate believers, setting them in a right and faithful relation to himself. …
It is important to note that not all Paul’s statements regarding justification are specifically linked with the theme of faith. The statements appear to fall into two general categories:
(1) those set in strongly theocentric contexts, referring to God’s cosmic and universal action in relation to human sin; and
(2) those making reference to faith, which is the mark to identify the people of God.
This is perhaps best regarded as a difference of emphasis rather than of substance. In its universal sense justification seems to underlie Paul’s argument for the universality of the gospel; there is no distinction between Jews and Gentiles.
But in its more restricted sense justification is concerned with the identity of the people of God, and the basis of its membership.
Justification language appears in Paul both with reference to the inauguration of the life of faith and also its final consummation. It is a complex and all-embracing notion, that anticipates the verdict of the final judgment (Rom 8.30-34) by declaring in advance the verdict of ultimate acquittal. The believers present justified Christian existence is thus an anticipation of deliverance from the wrath to come, and an assurance in the present of the final eschatological verdict of acquittal (Rom 5.9-10).
(p518, Ed. G.F. Hawthorne, R.P. Martin, D.G. Reid, Dictionary of Paul and His Letters;The IVP Bible Dictionary Series)
New Dictionary of Theology
Righteousness
Righteousness. The basic meaning of ‘righteousness’ and its cognates in the Bible derives from the Hebrew sedeq, which was usually translated in the LXX asdikaiosynē.
It thus denotes
- not so much the abstract idea of justice or virtue,
- as right standing and consequent right behaviour, within a community.
English translates this semantic field with two different roots: ‘right’, ‘righteous’, and ‘righteousness’ and ‘just’, ‘justice’, ‘justify’ and ‘justification’. In Heb. and Gk., however, these ideas all belong together linguistically and theologically.
In the OT (upon which the NT idea is based) two fields of thought give specific shape to the idea:
The lawcourt setting gives ‘righteousness’ the idea of the standing of a person in relation to the court’s decision. In the Hebrew court there were no public prosecutors: all cases had to be brought by a plaintiff against a defendant.
Righteousness is the status which results, for either party, if the court finds in his favour. Since the standard of judgment is the covenant law of God, ‘righteousness’ can acquire the sense of ‘behaviour in conformity with the covenant requirements’, bringing about the possibility that right covenant standing can be observed in ordinary behaviour.
In addition, the judge, or king, must conform to a different sense of righteousness: he must try cases fairly, i.e. he must be true to the law and/or the covenant, must condemn evil, show no partiality, and uphold the cause of the defenceless.
This complex meaning explains the occasional instances when the Septuagint uses dikaiosynē to translate not sedeq and its cognates but other roots such as hesed (grace, covenant mercy), mišpāt (judgment, justice), etc.
The covenantal setting merges with that of the lawcourt: this is due partly to the fact that the law (Torah) is the covenant charter.
Though sometimes God himself is seen as Israel’s adversary at law, the more frequently encountered picture is of God as judge or king, with Israel as either plaintiff (pleading her cause against her enemies) or defendant (on trial for failure to keep the covenant).
God’s righteousness is then invoked as the reason why he can be expected to deliver his people: he is committed by covenant to do so. When this is apparently called into question (in the exile, and later in the Maccabean revolt and the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70), the writers of these periods reply that God is righteous in judging his sinful people; that he is righteous in waiting before judging their enemies, granting time for repentance; and that he will show himself righteous in restoring the: fortunes of his people, in renewing the covenant (Dn. 9; Ezr. 9; etc.).
The book of Job can be seen as a long lawcourt scene in which Job pleads his righteousness, imagining that God is his adversary, only to discover that God cannot be brought into court: the first two chapters reveal Satan (see Devil) as the real prosecutor, with Job’s comforters as his unwitting assistants.
These two settings (lawcourt and covenant) combine to produce the developed covenantal theology which underlay Judaism at the time of Jesus.
To have ‘righteousness’ meant to belong to the covenant, the boundary marker of which was the Torah, and the hope of which was that God, in accordance with his own righteousness, would act in history to ‘vindicate’, to ‘justify’, his people (i.e. to show that they really were his people) by saving them from their enemies.
These meanings are reflected particularly in Matthew, where ‘righteousness’ is shorthand both for the saving plan of God (Mt. 3:15) and for the covenantal obligations of his people (5:20; 6:1), and Luke, which emphasizes the ‘righteous’ standing of many of the key actors in the drama (Lk. 1:6; 2:25; 23:50; Acts 10:22).
Jesus himself is sometimes called ‘the righteous one’, in virtue of his being the one designated by God as his true covenant partner (e.g. Acts 3:14; 7:52, 22:14, Jas. 5:6). The Jewish belief that God would judge the world justly is echoed repeatedly in the NT, e.g. 2 Thes. 1:5-6; Rom. 2:1-16; Heb. 12:23. But the fullest development comes in Paul, particularly with his exposition in Romans of the righteousness of God.
Paul saw that the Jewish problem of God’s righteousness (if the creator of the world is Israel’s covenant God, why is Israel still oppressed?) had been answered in a new and striking way in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The answer had, in fact, forced a restatement of the question, demonstrating as it did the universal sinfulness of Jews as well as pagans.
The gospel, Paul declares, proves that God is in the right despite appearances: he has kept covenant with Abraham, has dealt properly with sin, has acted and will act without partiality, and upholds all those who cast themselves, helpless, on his mercy (Rom. 1:16-17; 2:1-16; 3:21 – 4:25). God has, in other words, shown ‘righteousness’ in the sense appropriate for the judge and the Lord of the covenant. He is thus able to anticipate the verdict of the last day (Rom. 2:1-16) and to declare in the present (Rom. 3:21-26) that all who believe the gospel are already within the covenant community (see Justification).
The view that ‘the righteousness of God’ refers to a righteousness which God gives to, bestows upon, or recognizes in human beings came initially from Augustine, but gained its force (in terms of the development of modern theology) from Luther’s reaction against a iustitia distributiva. The term iustitia, as found in the Latin Vulgate, had indeed pulled the understanding of texts such as Rom. 1:17 in the (false) direction of a merely ‘distributive’ justice, in which God simply rewards virtue and punishes vice.
Luther’s alternative, however fruitful in opening new worlds of theology to him, was in some ways equally misleading, for it directed attention away from the biblical notion of God’s covenant faithfulness and instead placed greater emphasis upon the status of the human being.
In the period after Luther, Protestant theology largely returned to the notion of the distributive justice of God: because God is righteous, he must in fact reward virtue and punish sin, and this satisfaction of divine justice took place in Christ.
According to the NT, the people of God do indeed have ‘righteousness’. This is not, strictly speaking, God’s own righteousness (though cf. 2 Cor. 5:21), but that which is proper to the person in whose favour the court has found; within the covenant context, it is the right standing of a member of the people of God.
‘Righteousness’ thus comes to mean, more or less, ‘covenant membership’, with all the overtones of appropriate behaviour (e.g. Phil. 1:11). The terminology plays a central role in Paul’s debate with those who sought to keep the covenant community within the bounds of physical Judaism: they, Paul says, are ignorant of God’s righteousness (i.e. of what God is righteously accomplishing, of how he is fulfilling his covenant) and are seeking to establish a righteousness of their own (i.e. a covenant membership for Jews alone), whereas in God’s plan Christ offers covenant membership to all who believe the gospel (Rom. 10:3-4). (See further Paul.)
The central biblical discussions of righteousness thus principally concern membership in the covenant and the behaviour appropriate to that membership.
Since, however, these passages depend on a theology in which God is creator and judge of all the earth, and in which God’s people are to reflect God’s own character, it is not illegitimate to extrapolate from them to the ‘justice’ which God desires, and designs, for his world. The church is to be not only an example of God’s intended new humanity, but the means by which the eventual plan, including the establishment of world-wide justice, is to be put into effect.
Lack of emphasis here in older theological writing, due sometimes to individualism and sometimes to a dualistic split between church and world, has led to a reaction (e.g. in some liberation theology) in which ‘justice’ as an abstract virtue has been elevated in an unbiblical manner (e.g. at the expense of mercy). This should not prevent a balanced orthodox view of world-wide justice from regaining, and retaining, its place in the church’s teaching and practice.
Bibliography
On ‘justice’: P. Marshall, Thine is the Kingdom: A Biblical Perspective on Government and Politics Today (Basingstoke, 1984)
- J. Mouw, Politics and the Biblical Drama (Grand Rapids, MI, 1983)
- Wolterstorff,Until Justice and Peace Embrace (Grand Rapids, MI, 1984)
- H. Yoder, The Politics of Jesus (Grand Rapids, MI, 1972)
On ‘righteousness’ see under Justification.
(Originally published in New Dictionary of Theology. David F. Wright, Sinclair B. Ferguson, J.I. Packer (eds), 590-592.)
Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible
Righteousness
Conformity to a certain set of expectations, which vary from role to role. Righteousness is fulfillment of the expectations in any relationship, whether with God or other people.
It is applicable at all levels of society, and is relevant in every area of life. Therefore, righteousness denotes the fulfilled expectations in relationships between man and wife, parents and children, fellow citizens, employer and employee, merchant and customers, ruler and citizens, and God and man. Depending on the fulfillment of one’s expectations, an individual could be called righteous and his or her acts and speech could be designated as righteous.
The opposite of righteous is “evil,” “wicked,” or “wrong” (cf. Ps 1:6; Zep 3:5). Righteousness is the fiber which holds society, religion, and family together. Righteousness enhances the welfare of the community. A godly (not “pious” in the modern sense) person was called “righteous” (ṣaddîq). The ṣaddîq was a person of wisdom, whose “righteousness” brought joy to his family (Prv 23:22–25), to his city (Prv 11:10), and to the people of God (Prv 29:2).
In Israel the concept of righteousness transformed all of life, both religious and secular. Israel had been called into existence as a separate nation through which Yahweh was to witness to the nations concerning his universal rule, his nature, and his expectations of life on earth. This meant that Israel required a revelation from God so that they might learn his will and be instructed in maintaining a relationship with him. The quality of a person’s relationship with God is directly linked to his relationship with his fellowman. God is righteous (2 Chr 12:6; Ps 7; 9; 103:17; Zep 3:5; Zec 8:8). The righteousness of the Lord is a dynamic concept, since it describes his acts on behalf of his people and also the nature of his relationship with them.
Righteousness is an attribute which stems from a covenantal relationship. Israel received the revelation of God’s creative acts, transmitting the glorious acts of God’s salvation from Egypt, and the gift of the land of Canaan as expressions of his “righteousness.” All of God’s acts are righteous (cf. Dt 32:4; Jgs 5:11; Ps 103:6), and God’s people rejoiced in the righteous acts of God (Ps 89:16).
In creation, God’s rule over the nations, and his acts of salvation, Israel perceived the ordering and design of God’s manifold relations to this world and to his people. The fidelity of God to his creatures and particularly to his chosen people was an expression of his righteousness. Because of this revelation, Israel’s conception of history was a linear, progressive unfolding of God’s plan. By grace Israel had received a place in his order, and they could never claim that their own righteousness had contributed to their inclusion in the history of salvation (cf. Dt 9:5, 6). The continuation of God’s ordering (governance) is seen in his saving acts on behalf of his covenant people. His acts in creation and in salvation are righteous in that they are the working out of his glorious ordering of his kingdom purposes for the earth (Ps 11; cf. 2 Pt 3:13).
Not only is God righteous, revealing his righteousness in his mighty acts, but he also expects righteousness of others, who are to reflect the nature of their Creator. The expected response to God’s rule is in the form of righteousness, that is, conformity to his rule and will. In this basic sense, Noah is called “righteous” because he walked with God and showed integrity in comparison to his contemporaries (Gn 6:9).
After humanity’s fall and acts of rebellion culminating in the flood and the dispersion at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants. Abraham was righteous because he ordered his life by the revealed will of God (Gn 15:6; cf. 17:1b; 18:19; 26:5).
The Lord revealed to Israel more clearly how they were to relate to him and to each other. The Law in Israel was for the purpose of helping the people of God to live in conformity to the will of God. The person who was devoted to the service of God in worship and life was called righteous (cf. Mal 3:18).
Thus, righteousness is a state of integrity in relation to God and one’s fellowman, expressing itself in one’s acts and speech. Even as the Lord is righteous in his creative, sustaining, and salvific acts, so people are expected to act and speak in such a way that righteousness is evident and is advanced (Hos 10:12).
Yahweh, the Righteous One, freely established the covenant with Israel, lovingly redeemed them, and graciously promised to be their God and the God of their children. The covenant relationship was not dependent on Israel’s righteousness, past, present, or future. In order to secure the outworking of his plan, he chose David and his descendants to lead God’s people into righteousness. The Law was an impersonal instrument which found its complement, as in the days of Moses and Joshua, in a righteous leader, by whom righteousness was to be advanced.
The king in Israel was expected to lead God’s people in righteousness. As God’s appointed theocratic ruler, he reflected the glory and majesty of God. However, the king had another related responsibility. He was to protect the divine order and create a sphere in which God’s people would be encouraged to do God’s will so that the blessings of God would be assured.
To this end David exhorted Solomon, “Show yourself a man, and observe what the Lord your God requires” (1 Kgs 2:2, 3). Solomon’s prayer (Ps 72) was for righteousness so that he might rule Israel righteously, the righteous might flourish, and the nation might enjoy God’s blessing. “The mountains will bring prosperity to the people, the hills the fruit of righteousness” (vv 1–7).
The hope for an era characterized by righteousness was rooted in the prophetic revelation of the messianic rule and the establishment of God’s kingdom (Is 11:1–9), whose rule will extend to the nations (vv 10–16) and last forever (9:7). Isaiah develops the revelation of the glorious, victorious entrance of the kingdom of God in a most exquisite way, when his enemies will be subdued, and his people will be gathered together and will live in a state of peace in his presence.
The acts of restoration, extending from Israel’s return from exile till the final coming of the external kingdom are, in his prophetic purview, the demonstration of God’s righteous acts. He forgives, restores, remains faithful, loves, elects, and sends his Spirit to renew his people and to bestow on them all the benefits of the renewed covenant relationship.
Both Jews and Gentiles will be the recipients of his righteous acts (Is 45:8, 23; 46:13; 48:18; 51:5, 8, 16; 56:1; 59:14, 17; 60:17; 61:10, 11). In the new era “then will all your people be righteous and they will possess the land forever” (60:21), and the Lord will clothe his people with “garments of salvation” and “a robe of righteousness” (61:10).
Out of concern for the salvation of his people and the establishment of his everlasting kingdom, God revealed his righteousness in the sending of his beloved Son. The coming of Christ marks an era of renewal of his relationship with man, the renewal of the covenant and renewal of his kingdom on earth.
The older covenant was mediated by Moses; the covenant was renewed by the Son of God, who came “to fulfill all righteousness” (Mt 3:15). The message of Jesus is consistent with the OT in the close identification of God’s kingdom with his righteousness (Mt 6:33; 13:43; cf. Rom 14:17; 1 Cor 6:9). Jesus also taught that God expects all people to live in harmony with his will (Mt 7:21), rather than being mere imitators of other people’s righteousness (Mt 5:20).
Jesus is God’s final revelation of what he requires of individuals to enter the kingdom and to live righteously. By repentance, faith in Christ, and following the Messiah, each person is again shown how to enter the kingdom. The law of the kingdom is freshly interpreted by Jesus in the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:1–7:27) with the intent not to set the OT revelation aside, but to confirm it.
Jesus taught that legal righteousness was never intended as an end in itself. The righteous live by faith and walk with God in the footsteps of Jesus and in communion with the Holy Spirit.
For Paul, too, righteousness was not a legalistic system (Rom 9:30; 10:5; Phil 3:6; Gal 2:21).
The apostle Paul develops most extensively the doctrine of righteousness when he distinguishes the righteousness of people from the righteousness of God.
First, righteousness is forensic. Individuals cannot attain to righteousness, but receive it as a gift from God (Rom 3:21–5:21). There is no righteousness apart from Jesus Christ. In the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus, “righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last” (Rom 1:17; cf. Hab 2:4). Therefore the Father requires acceptance of his Son as his appointed means of justification (Rom 3:25, 26; 5:9). Righteousness carries a forensic significance in that God declares people to be righteous (Rom 8:33, 34; 2 Cor 3:9; 11:15). God pardons sins, is reconciled with sinners, and grants his peace to them (Rom 5:1, 9–11; Eph 2:14, 15, 17).
Second, righteousness is a relational term. Those who have been declared righteous enjoy a new relationship. They are “sons of God” by adoption.
Third, righteousness is a dynamic expression for newness of life. The Father relates to his children righteously and expects them to relate righteously to him. Righteousness as a dynamic quality expresses itself in the newness of life in the Spirit, which is freely given to those who have been justified (Rom 8:9–11). The way of righteousness manifests itself in love (Gal 5:22–26; Jas 3:17, 18).
Fourth, righteousness is also an expression of hope, since the righteous acts of God stretch from creation to the new creation in Jesus Christ. Paul defines hope as the eager anticipation of righteousness (Gal 5:5), that is, the era of restoration of which Isaiah spoke. The fullness of righteousness will be manifest at the coming of our Lord Jesus, when all those who have been justified will also be glorified (Rom 8:30).
The goal of salvation history moves toward the final glorious manifestation of God’s kingdom, when all creation will be renewed in “righteousness,” that is, conforming in every aspect to God’s plan in Jesus Christ (Rom 5:17, 21; 2 Pt 3:13). (Righteousness, Willem A. VanGemeren, Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible)
Justification
The act of God in bringing sinners into a new covenant relationship with himself through the forgiveness of sins. Along with such terms as “regeneration” and “reconciliation,” it relates to a basic aspect of conversion. It is a declarative act of God by which he establishes persons as righteous; that is, in right and true relationship to himself.
Since the time of the Reformation, when Martin Luther reestablished the doctrine of justification by faith alone as the cornerstone for theological understanding, this term has had special significance in the history of theology. To Luther it represented a rediscovery of Paul and a fundamental counterthrust to medieval Catholicism with its theology of works and indulgences. The doctrine of justification by faith alone affirms the thoroughgoing sinfulness of all persons, their total inability to deal effectively with their own sin, and the gracious provision through the death of Jesus Christ of a complete atonement for sin, to which persons respond in simple trust without any special claims or merit of their own.
The noun “justification” and the verb “to justify” are not used often in Scripture.
In the kjv, for example, the verb is found only in the OT, and there fewer than 25 times. In the NT both terms are used only 40 times. The more frequent and more important terms which translate the same Hebrew and Greek words are “righteousness” and “to declare (or make) righteous.” Any understanding of justification, therefore, directly involves a biblical understanding of righteousness.
In common Greek, justification and justify are frequently forensic terms; that is, they relate to the law court and the act of acquitting or vindicating someone. It has to do with the innocence or virtue of a person. But more broadly it has to do with the norm of any relationship.
Old Testament
Job knows that he will be vindicated (Jb 13:18). Similarly 1 Kings 8:32 speaks of “vindicating the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness” (cf. Lk 10:29.). But the most frequent and most important use has to do with the activity of God.
In the OT righteousness has to do with relationship and the obligations of that relationship.
At times one is referred to as righteous because he or she stands in right relationship to another. At other times one is righteous because he or she fulfills certain obligations in a relationship (Gn 38:26). But more important, these terms are used with reference to God, who is viewed as just. He governs with justice (Gn 18:25), and his judgments are true and righteous (Ps 19:9). Both the innocent and the guilty know well the justice of God: the former know they will be vindicated and the latter know his law prevails.
Justification and righteousness have technical significance because of their close association with the saving activity of God on behalf of his covenant people.
On various occasions in modern versions these terms are translated “deliverance,” “righteous acts,” or “triumphs.” Thus in Judges 5:11: “To the sound of musicians at the watering places, there they repeat the triumphs [righteous acts or saving deeds] of the Lord.” Or in Isaiah 46:13: “I bring near my deliverance, it is not far off, and my salvation will not tarry.”
These and other passages show that the righteousness of God is bound up not so much with justice as with his intervention in behalf of his people under the covenant.
The righteousness of God or the act of justification is, therefore, to be viewed not primarily in terms of Law but in terms of covenant.
The most important expression of this is the example of Abraham, who was reckoned righteous; that is, brought into personal relationship by virtue of his response of faith to the covenant offered by God (Gn 15:6). Abraham could not justify himself, but on the basis of the covenant God established him as righteous.
All persons share the helplessness of Abraham. In the sight of God no one shall stand justified (Ps 143:2). “If thou, O Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?” (Ps 130:3). The hope of humanity is that God will remember his covenant. Righteousness is hence a product of the mercy or grace of God, who deals with his people according to his lovingkindness (Is 63:7). Justification is thus derived from the nature of God; it is primarily a religious term, and only secondly ethical.
New Testament
Almost all discussion of justification in the NT is found in the letters of Paul, primarily in those to the Romans and Galatians. In these two letters it is one of the fundamental terms by which Paul seeks to set forth the consequences of the work of Christ for sinful humanity.
Justification by faith is set primarily against the background of Jewish legalism and its attempts to make the Law the basis of salvation. Paul regards this as an alien message requiring the strongest condemnation (Gal 1:6–9).
The word and work of Christ, embedded in the message that Paul proclaimed, was a reminder that righteousness or justification is the gift of God through the blood (covenant blood, Heb 13:20) of Jesus Christ. All this is entirely apart from the Law (Rom 3:21). The Law, in fact, is not capable of leading one to righteousness, nor was it given to bring about righteousness.
Galatians 3:15–25 is especially instructive in understanding the function of the Law, which came 430 years after the covenant by which Abraham was brought into a living, personal relationship with the holy God. Whatever purpose the Law had, it was not given as a means of righteousness. “For if a law had been given which could make alive, then righteousness would indeed be by the law” (Gal 3:21).
The atoning work of Christ for the justification of people is to be seen in terms of covenant rather than Law. This is the essential argument of Paul in this section of Galatians; namely, that justification has from the time of Abraham been through faith in the God who keeps covenant and never by the Law.
Righteousness is therefore a relational term and is affirmed by one who by faith has been brought into right relationship with God. The Law brings judgment; it confronts one with his incapacity to cope with sin (Acts 13:39; Rom 8:3).
Justification then, has its forensic (judicial) dimensions in that it copes with, and represents salvation to, the problem of sin and guilt. The believer is set free from condemnation (Rom 8:1).
Yet the fundamental understanding of justification is to be gained in moving away from the Law and judgment to the covenant and grace.
The appeal to Abraham in both Romans and Galatians is to show that the covenant has always been the only hope of humanity. God is not man (Hos 11:9), and so he comes in mercy; he keeps covenant, though his covenant people violate it daily.
In Paul’s formulation of the gospel God is both just and the one who justifies. Sin demands judgment and must be dealt with. God’s pattern of bringing people into personal relationship now stands manifest apart from the Law (Rom 3:21–26) in the ministry and death of Christ, whom God put forth as the atoning agent (v 25). Sin is dealt with directly in the death of the sinless one who became sin for us that we might in him become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21). In his substitutionary death he bears the guilt of all humanity so that by responding in trust mankind might know God in true relationship.
For Paul, then, justification in view of human sinfulness is rooted in the nature of God who alone is able to take initiative in the healing and redeeming of humanity. Justification is by grace alone. Rooted in the nature of God it is also made available through the work of Christ as God’s gift.
Thus we have the often repeated confession that Christ died “for us” (Rom 5:8; 1 Thes 5:10), or “for our sins” (1 Cor 15:3). The means of appropriation is by faith and faith alone (Rom 3:22; 5:1). This faith is a simple trust in the sufficiency of the work of Christ, a trust by which one freely and whole-heartedly identifies with Christ, loves and embraces his Word, and gives himself to the value system expressed in the kingdom of God. The basic self-consciousness of the justified person is that his right relationship with the living God has nothing to do with merit or achievement. It is from beginning to end a gift of infinite love. His own powerlessness is resolved in the power of the gospel in which God’s saving work is revealed (Rom 1:12, 17).
The Letter of James is often seen to be in conflict with Paul’s teaching on justification by faith apart from works of the Law. In fact, James quotes the same text (Gn 15:6) concerning Abraham and concludes, “You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone” (Jas 2:24).
Luther even repudiated this letter because it seemed at variance with Paul. But two factors should be observed: (1) Paul and James are faced with two completely opposite crises.
Paul is compelled to oppose a legalism which made the Law the basis for righteousness and enabled one to stand justified before God. The legalists were trying to maintain the law of Moses (in particular the obligation of circumcision) for those who would be justified. For these the Law was front and center.
James, on the other hand, seeks to cope with an antinomianism which shows no concern for the Law of God and says that faith is enough. For these persons the Law is of no consequence.
Paul’s opponents would put the Law at the heart of justification, so Paul’s response is expressed largely in negative terms: “No one will be justified by works of the law” (Rom 3:20). The opponents of James remove the Law altogether and negate the significance or meaning of works in the name of faith. As a result James speaks positively of the Law in relation to faith.
(2) When Paul and James speak of “works,” they speak of different concepts. Paul is speaking of works of the Law; that is, works as an expression of the Law, or what might be called “law-works” (Rom 3:20).
James, on the other hand, never speaks of works of the Law but rather of works that give expression to faith, or what might be called “faith-works.” James regards faith without works as dead; that is, as no faith at all (Jas 2:17). For him faith is expressed and perfected by works.
Paul and James both affirm that one comes into, and continues in, living relationship to God through faith—apart from the Law but not without the love and obedience that is born of faith.
In the Gospels justification appears in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector who went into the temple to pray. The former drew attention to his pious works and moral superiority. The latter, humbled by a deep sense of sin and unworthiness, could only cry for mercy. This man, according to Jesus, went down to his house justified (Lk 18:14).
Though this is the only instance of the terminology of justification by faith, the entire ministry of Jesus was among people preoccupied with their own piety and the task of justifying themselves before God, people who set themselves over against sinners and undesirables, people who were so involved in their own works that they were offended by the language of grace and the full pardon of sinners (Lk 7:36–50).
Jesus was involved in the same issue which later plagued Paul. Only the humble before God will be exalted (Mt 18:4; 23:12). Only the sinner hears the word of grace (Lk 5:32; 15:7, 10; 19:7). The unworthy find healing (Mt 8:8).
Justification (or righteousness) by faith is always to be reaffirmed, for within each person there is the almost inevitable and natural desire to establish personal righteousness, to be able to stand before God on the basis of personal character and piety.
But the revival and well-being of the church (note that both Luther and Wesley turned from works to faith upon their study of Romans) is rooted in the understanding that the just live by faith (Rom 1:17; Heb 10:38; 11:7). (Justification, Robert W. Lyon, Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible)
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