Righteousness is the quality or state of being morally correct and justifiable. It can be considered synonymous with “rightness” or being “upright“.
From a scriptural perspective, righteousness is the state of being right in the eyes of God, this includes Character (Nature), Conscience (Attitude), Conduct (Actions) and Command (Words) Galatians 5:24.
What is righteous in God’s eyes?
A person is righteous coram deo, that is, he is in a right relationship with God, when he simply receives the imputed obedience of Christ and the forgiveness of sins through faith. This is the first form of righteousness, it is passive and comes from grace.
…and Abram believed in (trusted in, relied on, remained steadfast to) The Lord; and He counted it to him as righteousness (right standing with God) Genesis 15:6 (Amplified), Romans 1:17.
Is this all there is to Righteousness? No. Galatians 5:24-26 speaks of a walk in righteousness. This brings us to the second kind of righteousness.
The Righteousness of character (Coram mundo). It deals with our lives spent profitably in good works (a person’s attitude and behaviour towards others). It does not glorify itself nor seek its own, it crucifies the flesh. Because it seeks the good of another, it works love. Thus, in each sphere it does God’s will, living soberly with self, justly with neighbor, devoutly toward God.
This righteousness is the product of the first type, actually its fruit and consequence.
Galatians 5:22 “But the fruit of the spirit [i.e., of a spiritual man, whose very existence depends on faith in Christ] is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control”.
For because the works mentioned are works of men, it is obvious that in this passage a spiritual man is called “spirit”.
John 3:6 says: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit”. This righteousness goes on to complete the first for it ever strives to do away with the old Adam and to destroy the body of sin.
As pointed out in Galatians 5, righteousness is passive (as in the first kind) and active (the second kind).
These two kinds of righteousness work hand in hand. In the first place, we embrace the free gift of righteousness (Romans 5:15-18). In the second place, we slay the flesh and crucify lustful desires with respect to oneself (Galatians 5:22-24), act in love towards one’s neighbour and living in meekness and fear towards God (Titus 2:12).
In conclusion, God expects us to live righteously not just embracing the passive righteousness imputed on us by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross but also embracing the active righteousness wherein we produce fruits of righteousness through our lifestyles.