Obedience … righteousness

When Paul says in Romans 6:16 that obedience leads to righteousness, he does not mean this in the usual way, as though righteousness were the reward for a long, arduous struggle on our part to be obedient. Rather, he means that the righteousness of God is the active, recreating power that enables the new life of obedience to take shape. This is what the new life in Christ means.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 369 (emphasis original)