When “righteousness” is used as a status
term, that is, in reference to someone’s righteousness before God, it means
either that God has taken note of the person’s actual moral/behavioral righteousness
(e.g., Deut 24:13; Ps 18:20-24), or that he has graciously reckoned
righteousness to their account so that they are now, treated and regarded as if
they were in fact ethically righteous in his sight. (Charles Lee Irons, “ΔΙΚΑΙΟΣΥΝΗ
ΘΕΟΥ: A Lexical Examination of the Covenant-Faithfulness Interpretation” [PhD
Dissertation; Fuller Theological Seminary, May 2011], 164)
Deut 24:10-13:
“When you make your neighbor a loan of
any sort, you shall not go into his house to collect his pledge. 11
You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge
out to you. 12 And if he is a poor man, you shall not sleep in is
pledge. 13 You shall restore to him the pledge as the sun sets, that
he may sleep in his cloak and bless you. And it shall be righteousness for
you (וּלְךָ֙ תִּהְיֶ֣ה צְדָקָ֔ה/και
εσται σοι
ελεημοσυνη) before the LORD you God” (ESV)
This special category of “righteousness
before God” is significant, because it shows that although one can discern a broad
distinction between legal righteousness and ethical righteousness, there is
actually overlap between the two point. For “righteousness before God” is
neither purely ethical nor purely legal. In some cases, such as Gen 15:6, it is
purely legal. In most other cases, it is both ethical and legal, that is,
the ethical righteousness is the basis of the legal recognition of that righteousness
in the divine course. (Ibid., 165)