δικαιοσύνη dikaiosynē
Romans 4:3 - "What does the Scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.'”
A lot of people wonder how the people of the Old Testament times, prior to Jesus coming to Earth, were able to obtain salvation in order to get to heaven. The simple answer is that they had faith. Just as today we look back to the sacrifice of and work of the Messiah, the Old Testament people in faith looked forward to what the Messiah would do, and they lived their lives and adjusted their behavior according to that faith.
I remember sitting with a student at a retreat and listening as she poured her heart out, weeping and telling me of her frustration over not serving the Lord enough, not scoring enough "brownie points" in order to feel that she had pleased Him enough. Her faith was a true faith, to be sure, but her subsequent Christian walk was based upon working slavishly in order to feel like she measured up to God's pleasure. I was able to assure her that her service was indeed pleasing to God but she didn't need to enter every day with the burden that Jesus was holding a spiritual clipboard and marking whether she did enough to measure up to acceptable Christianity. Abraham did many a great thing, but it was his belief that put him in the category of righteous and gave him a pleasing walk with God.
The Greek word for righteousness is dikaiosynē and means "the condition acceptable to God;a state approved of God."
