Genesis 15:6 English Standard Version (ESV) And he[Abram] believed the Lord, and he [God] counted it to him[Abram] as righteousness.

The first usage of any word in the bible is very revealing as to its meaning. This word will be used over and over again in the bible and its use will complicate our understanding of it. Let us begin with the basics and roll back our understanding to this first use.

Abram believed the Lord. One cannot believe another without having heard a word. Let us not separate the meaning without the provision of content, a word must be given before it can be believed.

Now God has put Abram’s belief on Abram account as righteousness. If we look to Eaton’s Bible definitions, Easton gives no definition of righteousness and says “See Justification”.

Other dictionaries and commentaries complicate righteousness by combining many of its uses rather than dealing with its basic meaning. It is noteworthy here to understand that the issue of righteousness is deemed by God to exist without Abram actually doing anything except believing what he is told.

The fact that God views righteousness as an accounting practice aligns itself perfectly with justification because of justifications primary definition. God keeps a record of all the things we say, do and think, it is a ledger, an accounting ledger. This ties in perfectly with Christ paying our debt by His sacrifice and resurrection. What we owe in the ledger has been turned from red to black.

The first thing we should recognize is that the ledger is in God’s hands in the eternal and there is nothing we can do to write into the ledger because it is not how we view things, it is how God sees things.

Romans 10:3 English Standard Version (ESV) For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.

Philippians 3:9 English Standard Version (ESV) and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith

Faith is the link. One might even say it is the ink God uses in His ledger. Without it, nothing changes.