Growing
Righteousness
In plain words
Righteousness means being right with God and doing what is right, and Jesus gives both.
Righteous is an old word for right, fair, as it should be. A righteous judge rules fairly. A righteous person does what is good. The Bible says God is perfectly righteous, and that nobody else is, on their own. Deep down most people know this about themselves.
Here is the surprise: God does not only demand righteousness, He gives it. Paul says God made Jesus, who never sinned, to carry our sin, "so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21). It is like receiving a clean record you did not earn, written in your name, that nobody can take away.
Go further Growing
The Bible uses righteousness in two connected ways. First, a gift: right standing with God through faith in Jesus (Romans 3:21-22, Philippians 3:9). Second, a way of life: doing what is right toward God and people. Jesus blesses those who "hunger and thirst for righteousness" (Matthew 5:6).
A common mistake is self-righteousness: feeling better than others because of your behaviour. The gospel removes that. You stand only by what Jesus gave you. The other mistake is thinking right living does not matter. It matters a lot, because a person made right with God starts to love what is right.
Go deeper Going deeper
The Hebrew tsedaqah and the Greek dikaiosyne cover justice, rightness and faithfulness to a relationship. God's righteousness in the Old Testament is often His faithfulness to save His people and put things right. Paul says this righteousness is now revealed in Christ, apart from the law but witnessed by it.
Christians differ on how to read "the righteousness of God" in Paul: as a status God gives, as God's own saving faithfulness, or both. Most evangelicals hold that Christ's righteousness is credited to the believer, and that this gift always leads to a changed life.
My verses
But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, as attested by the Law and the Prophets. And this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no distinction.
God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith.