We’re working through the book of Galatians at the conference I’m at this week (CMS Summer School, for those interested!). Yesterday, a little thing really struck me that I hadn’t thought about before. Often, I use ‘justified/justification’ and ‘righteous/righteousness’ interchangeably. I shouldn’t – and there’s an important reason why.
We hear these terms in passages within the same biblical context like “So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified” (Gal. 2:16) and “I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Gal. 2:21).
Both words come from the same Greek root word – Justified is a verb: dikaioó. It is the act of being proclaimed right with God, akin to a verdict being given in court. Righteous is a noun: dikaiosuné. This is given to us by God on the basis of our faith. For example, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness (Gal. 3:6, quoting Gen. 15:6).
Righteousness is given by the grace of God, and we are declared to be justified in his sight. Righteousness is something we get. Justified is something we are. To be justified, we need righteousness, and we cannot get that from ourselves or anything else in the world.
Here’s the important thought bubble – On both counts, we are nothing to do with it. On both counts, it is God who does the work. He is the one who brings us to faith. When we believe (not when we do works) we are made righteous. That’s why Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount “Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of God” (Matt. 5:20). That’s because the Pharisees are doing works (rites and regulation observance) and they are not believing by faith. Because we believe, “since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).
God did it all. He brought me to faith which I alone could not have done. He made me righteous, which is something I cannot gain from anything or anyone else in the world. I have been declared justified and so have peace with God.
I am nowhere in that process. And that is in no way a negative thing.
God be praised.