Righteousness of Justification Some have construed the righteousness contemplated in justification as the psychic act of faith itself in Christ and have insisted that Genesis 15:6 teaches this: “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it [that is, his faith] to him as righteousness” (see also Rom. 4:3, 5, 9, 22, 23; Gal. 3:6; James 2:23). Never is our faith-act, however, represented in the New Testament as the ground or the cause of our righteousness. If this were so, faith would become a meritorious