Quote Originally Posted by BroRog View Post
Those who want to study this further should realize that the same Greek word means both "right" and "just". And so, this Greek word and it's derivatives also have these two meanings, "righteous", "righteousness" , "justified", and "justification."

Don't be tricked by how our English translators have rendered the Greek term. In many cases the term should refer to the "state of being declared just" rather than "the state of being moral."

In English, we have a word that means, "the state of being moral" which is "righteous-ness", the suffix "-ness" meaning "the state of". However in English we don't have a word that means "the state of being declared just", which would be "justified-ness". So the English translators are forced to use the term "righteousness" when the meaning is actually "justifiedness."

Since "justifiedness" depends on the outcome of a court proceding, as the injured party declares the perpetrator "right with me", "justifiedness" can be imputed.

But, "righteousness" depends on moral behavior and can not be accounted to a person unless that person acts in a moral way. God can no more account Jesus' "righteousness" to us, than he can lie to himself about our moral status. God will not and does not pretend that we are righteous, i.e. morally perfect. Not only would that make God a liar, it would mean he lies to himself.
Excellent post, great use of the grammar, I did not know that about the English word righteousness.