In kanji which is used in CJK (Chinese Japanese Korean writing system), the character e for ‘righteous(ness)’ is a pictogram showing a sheep/lamb with ‘I’ underneath it, a picture of oneself put under the lamb.

Interestingly, if we look into the components for ‘I’, it is in itself composed of ‘hand’ and ‘lance’. Hence, in the same kanji for righteous(ness) it is recorded that a clean animal like a sheep had to be sacrificed to receive (temporary) remission of sins.

I have read two small delightful books many years ago: (1) ‘Discovery of Genesis’ by Kang and Nelson, and (2) ‘Genesis and the Mystery Confucius Couldn’t Solve’ by Nelson and Broadberry. A few relevant articles show up when googling for ‘genesis Chinese’.

I think, it is not much about being ‘right (in contrast to wrong)’ or ‘just, fair’, but about ‘being worthy’. When God declares us ‘righteous’, He is seeing us ‘worthy’, worthy to Him. If God is said to have His own righteousness (in contrast to righteousness coming from Him or imputed by Him), this righteousness would be ‘being worthiness’ on its own – ‘existential righteousness’ simply because God is who He is (self-existing).

With now almost 50 year exposure to the Bible, the concept of ‘righteousness’ (such technical biblical word!) has not been clear to me until it came as a ‘ureka’ recently. If you see this background idea on every occurrences of the word, you would know what I mean.

In fact, that recent idea of my own jibes well with what you mentioned. God says over my trust (> faith) in Him, ‘this really is my beloved child’; yes, beloved, because He sees me now worthy. Everything else associated with righteousness, such as His covenantal faithfulness, is consequent to this concept and reality of the core word-picture of ‘being worthy’.

One thing I might add: we have to see things as interconnected processes, not simply isolated events. This applies to ’salvation’, ‘justification’, ’sanctification’, etc.