What is Righteousness?

Read Romans 3:21-28 when you have the time.

Most of the time when we think of the Gospel we think of God's love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness. Indeed, the scriptures continually remind us that the Gospel demonstrates a love that is higher, deeper, and wider than any love we could fathom. However, in Romans 3 Paul emphasizes a different word..."righteousness." Paul says that the reason Jesus died on the Cross "...was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who as faith in Jesus." So it is not only because God is love that Jesus died on the Cross, but it is also because God is righteous.
My question is, "What does it mean to be righteous?" or "What is righteousness?" In the previous verse we are given a clue. Paul says that God wanted to display his righteousness"...so that he might be just and the justifier..." So righteousness and justice are closely linked. However, it doesn't seem that they are the same thing. From what Paul says, it seems that it is only in the display of His righteousness that He is called just and the justifier. So I would say that justice is the display, outworking, or execution of righteousness. Righteousness is a state of being, and justice is its visible manifestation. Or another way to say it is that justice is the fruit that grows on the tree of righteousness. God didn't just want to be righteous in His own being. He wanted to display His righteousness and share His righteousness so that He would be called the justifier of the ungodly and He would receive glory. And Paul says that this is the reason that Jesus died on the Cross.
So righteousness is a state of being or a quality of God that only God has (Is. 64:6). And His righteousness is displayed through the Cross so that He is called just and the justifier of the ungodly.
Now, we are getting closer, but we still haven't answered the question, "What is righteousness?" John Piper's definition might be the best I've heard. He says, "God is supremely and unimpeachably righteous because He never shrinks back from a right assessment of His ultimate value, a just regard for His infinite worth, or an unswerving commitment to honor and display His glory in everything He does." ("Brother's We Are Not Professionals" pg. 14). In other words, righteousness is a state of being that honors God as the supreme value. To not honor God as the supreme value is to be unrighteous. Now the Bible says that there are no righteous people and that all have sinned (Ecc. 7:20). So because of the Fall there is not a single man or woman who values God supremely. We are all unrighteous.
Now, here is where the Gospel (Good News) shines brightly for us. The Bible says that there has only been one righteous man. There has only been one man who honored God as the supreme value. And it pleased God that the punishment that was due to the unrighteous would rest on the shoulders of the Righteous, so that the unrighteous could have new eyes to see God's worth and now be called righteous. Jesus died on the Cross so that we could have new hearts, new lives, new eyes to see the infinite value of God...so that we could be called righteous. "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Cor. 5:21 ESV) Praise the Lord!