‘Righteousness is that attribute by which God’s nature is seen to be the eternally perfect standard of what is right. It is closely related to God’s holiness (or moral perfection), on one hand, and to God’s moral law or will as an expression of his holiness, on the other hand. Even though there is no distinction between righteousness and justice in the biblical vocabulary, theologians often use the former to refer to the attribute of God in himself and the latter to refer to the actions of God with respect to his creation. Hence, God’s justice is seen in the way he subjects the universe to various laws and endows it with various rights according to the hierarchy of beings he created. This is “legislative justice.” In addition there is “distributive justice,” in which God maintains the laws and rights by giving everything its due, or responding appropriately to created beings according to their value or place in the universe. His distributive justice with respect to moral creatures is expressed in the punishment of sin or disobedience (retributive justice) and the rewarding of good or obedience (remunerative justice; Rom 2:5-11).’ (D.W. Diehl, art. ‘Righteousness’ in EDT)