• Cf. En. Uii. 7, 'before his righteousnesa* {i.e. his holy presence).
Christian martyrs blessed who 'enilure the tem- porary fire for the sake of righteousness.' On the other hand, we find the term used specifically in a Christological sense. The latter usage re;iches back to St. I'aul, and to it we may now turn, i.e. to SiKaioavvr), as something more than a particular virtue or grace of the Cliiislian life, or even than a generic term for Chrisliiin goodness. 2. Technical Pauline use of the term. —
The small group of words connected with righteousness in the specific sense of the term is as follows: fintatoo-iii^ or 'right- eousness ' is the state of those who are fiiicaioi (' just *)" because they have been 'justified' (the verb is 6t*tatoii»/, -ova^at) by God, and their acquittal or justification is fiiKaiuat?. The de- claration of this verdict is sonietiiues taken to be the meaning of ^iKaiiiiixa, but in Uo o^fi it is probably equivalent to 5iicaiw<r(c, and in Ro 5^8 it means the 'act of redress' which makes ac- quittal possible. The latter sense develops the Greek usage, which, according to Aristotle {Nic. Klh. v. vii. 7), employed 5iKaio7rpay7)/xa as the opposite of dfiitoj/ia and reserved 6t«aiujna for the rectification of an unjust action (to en-afopflwua toO aSiKTJ^ioTo?).
The phrase ' righteousness of God ' occurs in 2 Co 521, Ko 11' 3,1.2122 (twice) 326(. (twice) Iff' and Ph 3» {SiKauxrufr] iic SeoC). The phrase 'righteousness of faith' occurs in Uo 4"- 13 930 (StKaioavirq €K Triareaj?) 10^ (RtKaioavfTrj fK wtaTtio?) and Ph 3^ {UKaioavvfi €jrl ttj Tritrrfi)- The fonner is an OT expression, although some of the LXX translators seem to have avoided it as far as possible. St. Paul stamps it afresh, and he coins the cognate e.\pression, 'righteousness of faith." In neither case is there any subtle difference of meaning suggested by the addition of "ck ; it merely emphasizes the (act implied in the simple genitive, that the' SiKaiotreinj originates with God. The life He possesses. He imparts to men, and therefore <StKa(0(nit.Tj may be said to be ' His ' in either sense. Whether we start from the idea of SijcaiocrvtTj in itself or from that of failb, it is plain that St. Paul could have neither thought nor spoken of any such standing or relationship except as one of experience, a position of life resting on the attitude of God to sinful men in Jesus Clirist.
Instead of discussing seriatim the succession of conflicting views of righteousness in St. Paul's theology, we shall prefix some characteristic definitions and desorij-tions, in order to indicate the main outlines of debate, and the various attempts which have been made to extricate a meaning from the laby- rinth of this problem.
(i.) ' This 5i«aioaerTj ©eou . . . is . . . the adequate relation founded in God's own nature, in which, as the idea of religion requires, man has to stand towards God ' (F. C. Baur, Pauttis, Eng. tr., vol. ii. p. ISti). It is 'the way opened up by God for this purpose' (16. footnote).
(ii.) 'The true relation between God and man, wliich, being ordained by God, presents itself to the consciousness of man as a new religious principle, as a new regulator of his religious behaviour, and to which man has to submit himself, by allowing his attitude towards God to be determined by this divinely ordained principle ' (O. Pfleiderer, PaiUinism, Eng. tr., London, 1877, vol. i. p. 175).
(iii.) 'The highest religious-ethical ideal, the realization of which every religion must ultimately strive after, because it is only in consequence of its realization that man knows himself to be standing in that right relation to God which guar.uitees his salvation' (B. Weiss, Lehrbuch der biblischen Tkeologie dfs iVr, Eng. tr., vol. i. p. 317 n.).
(iv.) ' Righteousness is nothing else than moral goodness re- garded in its intrinsic worth or acceptableness . . . viewed relatively to God's judgment or approval of it' (J. II. Newman, Lectures on the Doctrine o.f Jvstification'^, London, 1874, p. 107). (v.) ' This righteousness which conies from God by faith is rot a more or less relative perfection which God realizes in man, but consists in this, that God, as the consequence of faith, re- places man in normal touch (rapport rwrniol) with himself (Goguel, L'Apdtre Paul et J^sus-C/trist, p. 29).
(vi.) 'This righteousness obtained by man through Christ is designated the righteousness of God, not merely to denote that it is valid in His sight, or that He recognizes it as equivalent to the fulfilment of the law . . . but to show that this righteous- ness is produced and constituted by God as a state which He Himself can alone impart '(C. von Weizsackcr, A2>ostolic Age, i.= (London, 1897)167).
(vii.) ' This righteousness exists already in God as an attribute and active force ; it is transferred to man, and realized in him by the action of Divine grace.' It ' is more than a simple ac qliittal of the guilty ; it is an actual power (SiSva/iis @toi), which enters into the world and is organically developed there,— like the power of sin, but in opposition to it' (A. Sabatier, The Apostle Paul, Eng. tr., pp. 'iilS, ■iW).
(viii.) ' Paul's starting-point, it cannot be too often repeated, is the idea of righteousness ' ; ' the righteousness of God ; a sense of conformity with the divine moral order, the will of God, a sense of harmony with this order, of acceptance with God ' (Matthew .\rnold", St. Paul and Protestantism, London, 18S7,