Righteousness

If you look up "righteousness of God" in an online concordance, you'll find some 10 or 12 verses that specifically contrast righteousness to the Law (of Moses) - a thoroughly scandalous idea for Jews! - and link righteousness to faith.

And it was ever thus. Faith is not some substitute for righteousness that God mercifully accepts in lieu of law-keeping because we have failed at that. No, faith is and always was the true righteousness, the "righteousness of God." St. Paul, in Romans 9, tells us specifically that the Jews fell from righteousness precisely by seeking it by following the Law. Because "they sought it not by faith," they failed to attain to "the righteousness of God" -- and failed even to attain to the righteousness of the Law, besides. (Notice, that in telling us this, St. Paul is in effect debunking any theory that the Jewish failure was something mysteriously fore-ordained by the inscrutable will of God! God foreknew it, but never caused it and certainly never willed it.)

So is following the Law not a good thing to do? That's not the point. The Law is good and holy, but Christ has now sent the Holy Spirit. If you have been Chrismated, sealed with the Holy Spirit, and if you are attentive to Him and obey His promptings in your heart (always under the supervision of your spiritual father or mother, of course), you have little or no need for any law. The Holy Spirit will lead your steps aright. He will never lead you into sin. The Law was for following before the Day of Pentecost. But we now follow the Spirit.

Following the Law cannot save you.

Why not? Because you can never keep it perfectly? That too, but the matter goes deeper than that. The problem with the Law as savior is that there is no Life in it. It's only a legal, verbal icon of Life, of Truth, of Righteousness, of Christ. It's an example of typology. This means that even if you could keep the Law perfectly, it is powerless to save you. "If there had been a law given which could have given life, indeed righteousness should have been by the law," says St. Paul. But there is no such law. The Law cannot raise you from the dead. Only Christ can. One must rely upon Him rather than upon law-keeping. In other words, you must have faith.

Faith always was the true righteousness. Abraham believed God, and God counted it to him for righteousness - because it was righteousness.