Righteousness vs. Justice - Dikaiosyne in Scripture

The words "right," "righteous," "righteousness," and "just," "justice," and "justification" in scripture all come from the same greek word "dikaiosyne" (dee-ky-oh-soon-ay). From there, in the english translations of scripture, a theo-political battle has taken place which has overspiritualized the word to narrowly define dikaiosune as a personal experience or legal status given to us individually by God. And so they largely translate the word as "righteousness." Then for 500 years post-Reformation we have debated the salvation implications of individual righteousness as a gift from God. The Romance languages, namely Spanish, free from German influence, do not have this problem. They translate it as "justice".

Take for example Jesus' beatitude: "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

• Does this mean that we are blessed when someone persecutes for being an upstanding person? Or persecuted because the Father has declared us innocent through Jesus' death and resurrection?
• Or does this mean that Jesus counts us blessed when we fight for justice in the world?

People don't persecute nice people. People literally can't persecute us based on God's given invisible legal status. 

So for centuries we have read things like "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" as a command to pursue personal salvation/justification in our own individual lives. But read it again with the word "justice" there: "But seek first the kingdom of God and God's justice..." Doesn't that change the context just a little?

I am not saying the reformers were entirely wrong, but I am saying they may have read Jesus and Paul too narrowly. Certainly dikaiosune does imply legal status, a right standing with God. But it also implies God's justice freely lived out in the world through the Holy Spirit and the truth by those who have received the gift of God's gracious justification. NT Wright adds a third level of meaning in Covenantal Dikaiosune. 

Below are some great resources for a better glimpse of this word and its fuller meaning: 

-NT Wright on Dikaiosune: http://ntwrightpage.com/2016/07/12/righteousness/

- Seven Minute Seminary on Justification by Faith -- with special emphasis on righteousness vs. behavior: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55i6wzY6LyI&t=418s

- The Bible Project on Justice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A14THPoc4-4

- Maybe my favorite Wesleyan Scholar (only a small comment at the end from him): http://www.michaeljgorman.net/.../justification-once-again/

Michael Gorman: "Thanks for this helpful post. I have argued in multiple places now that Protestants (and others) need to lose their fear of justification as an effective, transformative divine declaration–a “deliverdict,” as the PCA theologian Peter Leithart calls it. This applies to conservatives as well as NPP people like my good friend Tom Wright. Vanlandingham is right, but I would go a step further. Modern linguistics tells us that a word’s sense is conveyed in large measure by its context–how it is actually used, not its etymology. I contend that Paul reinterprets justification in light of the life-giving death and resurrection of Jesus as the restoration of right covenantal relations with God and others through co-crucifixion with the Messiah. It is justification by co-crucifixion and, paradoxically, because it is a transformative declaration and act of God, it is, as Paul says at the end of Romans 4, in fact a resurrection from death to life."

-If Gorman is too radical for you, here is a presumably a more conservative approach from Talbot: https://vimeo.com/21009306

- IF YOU ONLY WATCH ONE - Wolsteroff from Yale gives a great, cursory glance of the word, it's history, and it's root - : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdcIkbAMWKA