The concept of righteousness as applied to God is prominent in both the Old Testament and the New Testament and has been significant during the postbiblical history of Christianity, especially during the Protestant Reformation. In the present study the righteousness of God serves as a bridge between holiness and the attributes related to it and love and the attributes related to it. Righteousness can have such a role partly because of the diversity of meanings which it has.

I. THE OLD TESTAMENT#

A. TERMS#

The concept of righteousness in the Old Testament is principally expressed through one family of words. The verb ṣāḏaq, probably having as a general or secular meaning “to be straight,” came to have a religious meaning, namely, “to be right or righteous.” The adjective is ṣaddîq, meaning “righteous,” and the nouns are ṣeḏeq, which is usually translated “righteousness” or “justice,” and ṣĕḏāqāh, meaning “rightness, justice.”

Closely associated with ṣāḏaq and its cognates and sometimes expressive of righteousness was the verb šāphaṭ, “to judge,” and the noun mišpāṭ, meaning “judgment,” which words more often convey the ideas of judgment and justice.

B. USAGES#

1. Universal Rigthteousness

In certain Old Testament passages the contexts show that “righteousness” or “justice” has a universal meaning. Especially is this true of Yahweh’s kingly rulership of the nations. Early in the Pentateuch one finds the question:

  • “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Gen. 18:25b, NIV)

  • “Say among the nations, ‘The LORD reigns’… [ and] he will judge the peoples with equity” (Ps. 96:lOa,c)

  • “He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth” (Ps. 96:13b)

  • “The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all the peoples see his glory” (Ps. 97:6)

Of both Judah and her neighboring peoples Jeremiah recorded: “I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight, declares the Lord” (9:24b ).

2. Covenantal Righteousness

The great majority of usages of the righteousness of God pertain to the covenant people: God is righteous in all his dealings with Israe/Judah.

Although it has not been true among Old Testament theologians, certain Baptist systematic theologians have formulated and utilized a threefold differentiation of the uses of covenantal righteousness. Such a differentiation seems to be consistent with the various passages under examination and will therefore be used here.

a. Mandatory Righteousness

In some Old Testament passages God is said to be “righteous” in the sense that his law is righteous and places righteous demands on the covenant people for their obedience to it. Hence Yahweh’s “righteousness” mandates or makes imperative Israelite obedience of the law.

In contrast to towns inhabited by the wicked, obedient Israelites should obey Yahweh, “keeping all his commands” and “doing what is right in his eyes” (Deut. 13:18, NIV). The righteous character of the law is affirmed in the Psalms: “The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart …. The ordinances of the LORD are sure and altogether righteous” (l9:8a, 9b).

b. Retributive or Punitive Righteousness

Not a few Old Testament passages contain the concept that as the “righteous” God Yahweh punishes or brings retribution upon his sinful, disobedient people. Such passages seem to suggest that because Yahweh is “righteous” he must inflict such punishment. Sometimes God’s righteousness is connected with Yahweh’s accusing the people because of their sins.

  • Along with the punishment of the wicked, in the context we read: “For the LORD is righteous, he loves justice; upright men will see his face” (Ps. 11 :7, NIV).

  • Also connected with woes and judgment is the statement: “the holy God will show himself holy by his righteousness” (Isa. 5:16).

  • Against those who had plotted to kill him Jeremiah wrote: “But, 0 LORD Almighty, you who judge righteously and test the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you I have committed my cause” (11:20).

  • The words of Jerusalem, in agony and remorse, are cast in the first person: “‘The LORD is righteous, yet I rebelled against his command’” (Lam. l:18a).

  • That Jerusalem deserved punishment is reflected in the words: “The LORD within her is righteous; he does no wrong. Morning by morning he dispenses his justice, and every new day he does not fail, yet the unrighteous know no shame” (Zeph. 3:5).

  • The book of Daniel reflects the same usage of righteousness in Daniel’s prayer. “LORD, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame-the men of Judah and people of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you” (9:7).

  • Ezra connected God’s righteousness with the remnant: “O LORD, God oflsrael, you are righteous! We are left this day as a remnant. Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence” (9:15). Neh. 9:33 expresses a similar thought.

c. Redemptive or Saving Righteousness

There are also numerous passages, chiefly in the Psalms and in Isaiah 40-66, in which the righteousness of Yahweh is clearly depicted in association with his redemption of his people. The texts seem to imply that because Yahweh is “righteous” he redeems or saves his people.

  • God’s saving righteousness is affirmed in a context of forgiveness and removal of transgressions (Ps. 103:6; also vv. 3, 12).

  • The righteous God is compassionate and loving toward all his creatures, especially those who cry to him (Ps. 145:17; alsovv. 8-9, 19).

  • There is prayer for salvation in God’s “righteousness” (71 :2), and prayer for deliverance from trouble on the basis that God is righteous (143:1, 11).

  • Yahweh’s saving righteousness can be sung about (51:14); indeed salvation and righteousness are synonyms (98:2).

In Isaiah 40-66 the redemptive or saving aspect of God’s righteousness is even more explicit.

  • The covenant people are to be strengthened and helped by God’s “righteous right hand” (41:l0b, NIV).

  • The Servant of Yahweh is “called …. in righteousness” to become “a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles” (42:6).

  • Yahweh the only God is “a righteous God and a Savior,” and the “ends of the earth” are to turn to him to “be saved” (45:21-22).

  • Four times “righteousness” and “salvation” are coupled in synonymous parallelism (46:13; 51:5a; 51:6c; 61:10).

The saving righteousness of Yahweh was expressed elsewhere in the Old Testament.

  • Divine righteousness was joined with the betrothal of Israel unto faithfulness (Hos. 2: 19-20)

  • When Judah’s leaders humble themselves in repentance, confessing that “Yahweh is righteous,” subjection to the king of Egypt is averted (2 Chr. 12:5-8).

God’s righteousness, therefore, in the Old Testament was universal in dimension and particularized with the covenant people, and in the latter sphere it was expressed mandatory, punitive, and redemptive significance.

II. THE NEW TESTAMENT#

The Greek New Testament word for “righteous” is dikaios and the word for “righteousness” is dikaiosynē. These words are closely related, especially in the letters of Paul, to the verb dikaioûn, meaning “to justify.”

The concept that God is “righteous” is a Pauline and Johannine teaching, and the use of “righteousness” in reference to God is primarily a Pauline teaching.

A. GOD AS “RIGHTEOUS”#

God is addressed as “righteous Father” in Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer (John 17:25 ), and 1 John identifies both Jesus Christ (2:1b) and God the Father (3:7b) as “righteous.” Paul in speaking of the last judgment alludes to God as “the Lord, the righteous judge” (2 Tim. 4:8). In Rev. 16:5 God is said to be “righteous” in the “judgments” connected with the bowls of wrath in language that seems to have been a quotation of Ps. 119:137.

B. THE “RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD”#

Although the term hē dikaiosynē tou theou or its equivalent is to be found occasionally in the non-Pauline books of the New Testament, it is primarily a Pauline term.

As in Jesus’ statement, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness” (Matt. 6:33, NIV), and in “a faith of equal standing with ours in the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 1:1b, RSV).

In Paul’s usage the most often expressed meaning is that God’s righteousness is his gift through the gospel of Jesus Christ (Rom. 1:17; 3:21-22; 10:3; Phil. 3:9). But the term can also refer to an attribute of God (Rom. 3:25-26) and to Christians ‘becoming through Jesus’ death “the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21; also Eph. 4:24).

The history of exegesis, however, shows that exegetes and theologians have found it difficult to agree on the meaning or meanings of “the righteousness of God.”

  • Some, taking the phrase as a subjective genitive, have insisted that the term refers only to an attribute or quality of God and has no other meaning. Ambrose during the patristic age held that position.

  • Others, taking the phrase as a genitive of origin, have concluded that it refers only to the gift that God bestows in Christ through faith on sinful human beings. Augustine of Hippo, Martin Luther, John Calvin5 John Gill (1697-1771), Richard Charles Henry Lenski (1865-1936), Anders Nygren, and Ernst Kasemann have represented that view.

  • Thirdly, still others have held that the term can mean both attribute and gift. Among the advocates have been Johann Albrecht Bengel, William Sanday and Arthur Cayley Headlam (1862-1947), Charles Harold Dodd, W. T. Conner, Paul Althaus, and Charles Ernest Burland Cranfield (1915-).

The third position seems to be capable of defense on the basis of Rom. 3:21-26, wherein the dual meaning can be seen in separate texts and even in the same verse. In 3:25-26 “the righteousness of God” is a divine attribute, in 3:21-22 it is the gift of God through Jesus Christ, and in 3:26, wherein the noun, the adjective, and the verb are used, both meanings can be found.

The fact that “the righteousness of God” is God’s gift throughJesus’ death makes its use as a divine attribute consistent with God’s saving activity. In fact righteousness, according to Paul, is, as in Psalms and Isaiah, a redemptive attribute. The same is true in the Johannine writings. God saves or forgives sinners not in spite of his being righteous but because he is “righteous” (1 John 1:9).

III. THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE#

A. Late medieval Roman Catholicism tended to obscure or deny the righteousness of God as gift by equating righteousness with justice (justitia) and through its doctrine of human merits, both condign and congruous. The Council of Trent (1545-63) clarified the Roman doctrine of justification, retaining the teaching that eternal life is both “grace” and “reward.”

B. Martin Luther’s celebrated tower discovery (Turmerlebnis) in the monastery at Wittenberg was seemingly his coming to realize on the basis of Rom. 1: 17 and passages in the Psalms that “righteousness” (dikaiosynē, justitia) was a redemptive attribute and gift, not merely the exercise of retribution or punishment.

C. Some high Calvinists and others may have understood God’s righteousness solely as retributive justice (“God must punish sin because he is righteous; he may redeem or forgive the sinner.”) and thus have obscured the redemptive aspect of divine righteousness.

D. Systems of philosophical ethics such as hedonism (the ethic of pleasure) and utilitarianism (the ethic of usefulness), have contradicted the theocentric ethics of Christianity, according to which the nature of God as righteous is the ultimate basis for the distinctions between right and wrong.

E. Liberal Protestant theologians by subsuming righteousness under the divine love and/or by denying the reality of any retribution some even affirming eschatological universalism downgraded righteousness as a theme and tended to remove its retributive aspect. Rightly interpreted, retributive righteousness is not sheer vindictiveness but the characteristic reaction of the Holy One who is righteous toward sin.

SUMMARY#

In the Old Testament God is said to be “righteous” in relation to all humankind and in relation to the covenant people. Under the latter “righteousness” was variously employed with mandatory, retributive, and redemptive meanings.

In the New Testament, especially in Paul, God’s righteousness was both his attribute and his gift bestowed on human beings through Jesus Christ.

During postbiblical history God’s righteousness has been wrongly preempted by human merits, pressed to mean only retribution, denied as the ground of ethics, and demoted by an overemphasis on love.