What is the difference between holiness and righteousness?
The short answer is: we are righteous because Yahuah counts Yahusha’s righteousness’ instead of our sins when we accept Yahusha as our savior.
We are becoming holy as we obey Yahuah more and more in our lives.
Being righteous
Being righteous is being acceptable to Yahuah. Noah is the first person in the Bible to be called righteous: “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with Elohim” Genesis 6:9. Here we see the two aspects of being righteous: doing the right thing (being blameless) and having a relationship with Yahuah (walked with Yahuah).
In the Old Testament/Torah this is often connected to the law of Yahuah. In Psalm 1 the description of the righteous says “his delight is in the law of Yahuah”. The law means instructions for life; it is about what we should do. But doing that is a delight, because it is the law of Yahuah. So again, doing the right thing and having the right relationship go hand in hand. We obey because we love Him.
Being righteous is dependent on faith. Paul strongly emphasizes this in Romans 3-5, and quotes Genesis 15:6 about Abraham to prove his point: “And he believed Yahuah, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” So as Paul uses the term, being righteous is not based on what we do, (that can be self-righteousness) but something we receive when we believe in Yahuah’s covenant and promises. Through faith in Yahusha we receive forgiveness of sins and are acceptable to Yahuah.
Being holy
Being holy means being set apart for Yahuah. It can be used for objects (a holy altar), time (a holy day), or persons (a holy priest). His people are called to be a set apart people, and are therefore made holy (or sanctified, which has the same meaning). We see this for example in 1 Corinthians 6:11: “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of Yahusha the Messiah and by the Spirit of Yahuah.”
At the same time, there is also a sense in which being made holy is not a one-time event, but a continuing process. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 says “Now may the Elohim of peace himself sanctify you completely”. As we are living with Yahuah, we are growing in faith and obedience. More and more we are changed into the likeness of Yahusha. More and more we display the fruit of the Ruach/ Holy Spirit. In that way, we are made holy. This process will only be complete when we are with Yahuah.
What we are and what we become
So one way to distinguish between being righteous and being holy is to say that we are righteous, and are becoming holy. We are righteous through faith in Yahusha, and we are becoming holy as we grow in faith in Messiah. We have been declared righteous because of something that happened outside us: It is Yahuah’s work in us. We receive Yahuah’s blessing of righteousness when we believe; who He is, His covenants/promises. We are becoming holy because something is happening in us: we are becoming more and more like Yahusha. This is the work of Yahuah in us. It is still Yahuah’s work, but we are fully involved, we are living it out.
Heart of Covenant 