The original words (di·kai·oʹo [verb], di·kaiʹo·ma and di·kaiʹo·sis [nouns]) in the Christian Greek Scriptures, where the fullest explanation of the matter is found, basically carry the idea of absolving or clearing of any charge, holding as guiltless, and hence acquitting, or pronouncing and treating as righteous.​—See W. Bauer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (revised by F. W. Gingrich and F. Danker), 1979, pp. 197, 198; also A Greek-English Lexicon, by H. Liddell and R. Scott (revised by H. Jones), Oxford, 1968, p. 429.

Thus the apostle Paul speaks of God as being “proved righteous [form of di·kai·oʹo]” in His words and winning when being judged by detractors. (Ro 3:4) Jesus said that “wisdom is proved righteous by its works” and that, when rendering an account on Judgment Day, men would be “declared righteous [form of di·kai·oʹo]” or condemned by their words. (Mt 11:19; 12:36, 37) Jesus said that the humble tax collector who prayed repentantly in the temple “went down to his home proved more righteous” than the boastful Pharisee praying at the same time. (Lu 18:9-14; 16:15) The apostle Paul states that the person who dies is “acquitted [form of di·kai·oʹo] from his sin,” having paid the penalty of death.​—Ro 6:7, 23.

However, in addition to such usages, these Greek words are used in a special sense as referring to an act of God whereby one is accounted guiltless (Ac 13:38, 39; Ro 8:33) and also to God’s act in declaring a person perfect in integrity and judged worthy of the right to life, as will be seen.

Understanding of this expression is aided by considering the sense of the Greek verb lo·giʹzo·mai, “count,” here used.

How “counted” righteous. This Greek verb lo·giʹzo·mai was used regularly in ancient times for numerical calculations or computations such as in accounting, being used when referring both to something that was entered on the debit side of an account and also to something entered on the credit side thereof. In the Bible it is used to mean “reckon, credit, count, or take into account.” Thus 1 Corinthians 13:5 says that love “does not keep account [form of lo·giʹzo·mai] of the injury” (compare 2Ti 4:16); and the psalmist David is quoted as saying: “Happy is the man whose sin Jehovah will by no means take into account.” (Ro 4:8) Paul showed to those who looked at things according to their face value the need to make a proper evaluation of matters, to look at both sides of the ledger, as it were. (2Co 10:2, 7, 10-12) At the same time, Paul was concerned that “no one should put to [his] credit [form of lo·giʹzo·mai]” more than was correct as regards his ministry.​—2Co 12:6, 7.

The word lo·giʹzo·mai may also mean “esteem, appraise, count, rate, or reckon (with a group, class, or type).” (1Co 4:1) Thus Jesus said that he would be “reckoned [form of lo·giʹzo·mai] with lawless ones,” that is, counted or classed as in among them or as if one of them. (Lu 22:37) In his letter to the Romans, the apostle says that in the case of the uncircumcised person keeping the Law, his “uncircumcision will be counted as circumcision,” that is, estimated or looked upon as if it were circumcision. (Ro 2:26) In a similar sense, Christians were urged to ‘reckon themselves to be dead as regards sin but alive as regards God by Christ Jesus.’ (Ro 6:11) And anointed Christians from among the Gentiles, though not fleshly descendants of Abraham, were “counted as the seed” of Abraham.​—Ro 9:8.