In this episode we continue to look at the story of Abraham, but this time we zoom in on the part of his story where he begins to doubt God's intentions for keeping his promise to give him and his wife a child. God made that promise when Abraham was 75 years old. But 10 years have gone by, and there's still no child. At 85, Abraham is struggling with whether or not God is going to do what he said he was going to do. In other words, Abraham begins to doubt God. God responds to Abraham by reassuring Abraham that from his own body will come descendants more numerous than the stars of the sky. At that moment, Abraham's faith is renewed, and it says that he was considered righteous by God.
But here's the question: what does it mean to be righteous? The short answer is: it depends on what the standard is. To say something is righteous is like saying something is ready, or clean, or good. All three of those terms are somewhat subjective because something may be ready, or clean, or good according to one person, but not ready enough, not clean enough, or not good enough, according to another person. It sort of begs the question: righteous according to whose standard?
Paul says in Romans 1:16-17 that the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel of Christ. In other words, it is in the good news - the story - of Jesus the Christ that we find the standard for righteousness (see Romans 1:1-6 for a summary of that story). There is something about his incarnation, holy life, death, and resurrection that sets the standard for what it means to be righteous. And the shocking thing about Romans is that this righteousness is directly linked with the resurrection of Christ (See Romans 4:25 where it says Christ was raised for our justification/righteousness). In other words, there is something about Jesus in his new, glorified, resurrected body that is part of the standard for what it means to be righteous. In short, the standard for righteousness in Romans goes beyond a proper trust in God's promise (the story of Abraham in Gen 15:1-6), or perfectly obeying the law (the story of Israel struggling to faithfully obey the law of Moses). Righteousness in Romans amounts to participation in the resurrection life of Christ (the story of the gospel of Christ). 
Key Passages:
Genesis 15:1-6 - the Hebrew word for righteous comes from the word tsedeq and means to be accurate, just, or right. 
Romans 1:16-17 the Greek term for righteousness comes from the root word dikaios and means right, upright, or just. For a more in depth explanation of this word, see the entry for Justification in the Anchor Bible Dictionary here.
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* Intro Music: "Admirable" Carlos Herrera Music

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