Word studies · Greek · Strong's G1344
δικαιόω · dikaióō · appears 38 times in the New Testament
In one line: God's verdict: counted righteous in Christ.
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Romans 5:1
Dikaioō is to declare righteous — a verdict God pronounces, not a moral improvement He observes.
Paul uses dikaioō for God's acquittal of the guilty on the basis of Christ's work, received by faith: “justified by faith apart from works of the law.” James uses it of the demonstration of a faith that is genuine, showing the word can name both the verdict and its visible proof.
Dikaioō is formed from dikaios, “righteous,” with a verb ending that in Greek law meant to deem or declare someone to be something rather than to make them so. The Septuagint uses it in courtroom settings, where to justify is what a judge does for the innocent party.
English “justify” now means to defend or explain oneself, which reverses the direction: in Paul the defendant says nothing, and the judge speaks. Keeping the legal sense also keeps the shock — the one justified is “the ungodly.”
Dikaioō (G1344) appears 38 times in the New Testament, 25 of them in Romans and Galatians alone.
Justification puts a Christian's standing outside themselves, in a verdict already announced, which is why assurance is possible at all. It also explains the order of the Christian life: obedience follows acceptance rather than earning it.
When you fail, resist the instinct to rebuild your standing by doing better. Say back to God the verdict He has already given, and let obedience follow from it rather than reach for it.
to render (i.e. show or regard as) just or innocent
The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at this glutton and drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners! But wisdom is vindicated by her actions.
Matthew 11:19All the people who heard this, even the tax collectors, acknowledged God’s justice. For they had received the baptism of John.
Luke 7:29Through Him everyone who believes is justified from everything from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.
Acts 13:39For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but it is the doers of the law who will be declared righteous.
Romans 2:13My conscience is clear, but that does not vindicate me. It is the Lord who judges me.
1 Corinthians 4:4know that a man is not justified by works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
Galatians 2:16Press and hold justify in any chapter and this study opens on the verse you are reading, with the lexicons, every occurrence and the commentaries beside it. The Bible is free to read.
Scripture quoted from the Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Strong's definitions are public domain. Counts come from The Pillar's own tagged text.