An important passage on this subject is Romans 3:1-4:25. Try reading this passage through now, and below are some thoughts on how to understand it.

What is righteousness?

To be ‘righteous’, means to be like God in the way we think, speak and act. God always acts in accordance with what is right and therefore He is the standard for what is right, just and true. If we are to be righteous, then we are to be like Him.

In the Old Testament, we understand what God thinks is right through His Law. The Ten Commandments and all the other laws in the Old Testament give us moral code by which to live if we are one of God’s people.

Can we be righteous by obeying God’s law?

No! We have all failed at keeping God’s law. Not one of us has been able to meet God’s standards. In Romans, the apostle Paul quotes some verses in the Old Testament, which say that: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Romans 3:10-12

Paul goes on to say that: “No one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.” Romans 3:20

When God shows us His amazing righteousness and holiness in his law, when we understand just how high a standard he has set, we recognise how unrighteous we are and realise that we need help if we are to stand before him without being destroyed.

How can we be righteous?

We can’t be righteous by our own effort. This is where justification comes in. Justification is a legal term that Paul uses in Romans, which means to be declared righteous by God. The picture is one of a courtroom, with us in the dock and God as the judge. We are due to be sentenced to death for breaking His law and Jesus intervenes dramatically on our behalf to save us from the guilty verdict and the punishment. Jesus enables us to be declared righteous in God’s sight if we have faith in Him. If you have faith in Jesus Christ, then you are justified before God. Let’s look a bit more closely at what that means as Paul explains it in Romans.

“But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished - he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” Romans 3:21-26

What is Justification?

In brief, justification means that when we have faith in Jesus Christ:

1. God forgives us our sin through Christ’s sacrificial death

In Romans 4:7-8, Paul quotes from Psalm 32, where David says: “Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.” Romans 4:7-8 We can’t be righteous in our own effort because our sin has tainted us. No amount of effort can scrub away that dirt. We need God to forgive us our sin and make us clean if we are to stand before him. Jesus death on the cross takes away our sin and makes us clean. However, there is more to justification than that because forgiveness of sin only makes us innocent before God, it doesn’t yet make us righteous.

2. God thinks of Christ’s righteousness as belonging to us

When we have faith in Jesus, a two-way transaction takes place.

1. Jesus takes all of our unrighteousness, our sin, on to himself and died in our place
2. Christ gives us his righteousness so that we might live a life that is pleasing to God.

For those who trust in Jesus God credits righteousness to our account. “To the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.” Romans 4:5 When he looks at us, he sees Christ’s righteousness rather than our own unrighteousness. Paul says that we have received the ‘gift of righteousness’ (Romans 5:17). This means that we are now declared righteous in God’s sight, not by our own efforts, not on the basis of our good works, but only in response to our faith. Even our faith is not an act of righteousness on our part but is rather a gift from God to us. This is perhaps most clearly stated in Ephesians: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:8-10

Only in response to God’s saving grace can we then do ‘good’ or ‘righteous’ works which please Him.