(2) “Righteousness of God” in 1:17 might refer to a status given by God.37 Luther’s personal spiritual struggle ended with his realization that God’s righteousness meant not “the righteousness by which he is righteous in himself but the righteousness by which we are made righteous by God.” Not the strict “distributive justice” (iustitia distributiva) by which God impartially rules and governs the world, but a righteousness that is not one’s own (iustitia aliena), a new standing imparted to the sinner