Righteousness
Righteousness according to Dictionary.com
- characterized by uprightness or morality: a righteous observance of the law.
- morally right or justifiable: righteous indignation.
- acting in an upright, moral way; virtuous: a righteous and godly person.
William Tyndale (Bible translator into English in 1526) remodelled the word after an earlier word rihtwis, which would have yielded modern English rightwise or rightways. He used it to translate the Hebrew root צדק (tzadik), which appears over five hundred times in the Hebrew Bible, and the Greek word δίκαιος (dikaios), which appears more than two hundred times in the New Testament. -- Wikipedia
Righteousness is right standing, or good standing with God.
It does not mean human "perfection." You are righteous because God says you are.
You may wonder about Romans 3:10 which says no one is righteous. Yes, it does say that, but it is quoting an Old Testament passage to prove that both Jews and Gentiles were guilty before God and needed salvation. It immediately goes on to say in the next few verses (see Romans 3:22,24) that now we can be righteous through faith in Jesus Christ.
Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?
It is God who justifies.
-- Romans 8:33 (ESV); Isaiah 45:24-25
Paul's explanation to the Romans:
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. -- Romans 3:23-25 (ESV)
For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” -– Romans 4:3
Then Paul explains his statement:
For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.
That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and lbe guaranteed to all his offspring — not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations” — in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been old, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.”
But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in Him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. -- Romans 4:13-5:2
For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God's wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ. -- Romans 5:17 (NLT)
For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. -- Romans 10:10 (NLT)
Paul's explanation to the Corinthians:
God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. -- 1 Corinthians 1:30 (NLT)
For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. -- 2 Corinthians 5:19,21 (NLT)
Paul's explanation to the Galatians:
Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law." -- Galatians 2:16 (NLT)
Paul's explanation to Titus:
... he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. -- Titus 3:5 (NLT)
Misconceptions about righteousness
Some people think that you need to keep every law to be righteous, however Paul address this issue:
If righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. -- Galatians 2:21 (NKJV)
No one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. We all fall short of the glory of God. -- Romans 3:23 (NIV)
The prophet Habakkuk also wrote:
The just shall live by his faith -- Habakkuk 2:4 (NKJV)