I too have come to the same conclusions! Oh what a minority view though!
Christianity in the past 500 years or so views justification–accounted or imputed righteousness–as a mind game. That God simply thinks differently about us even though we’re exactly the same sinful person.
But justification is not some floaty concept. He who doeth righteousness is righteous. If you’ve been accounted righteous, you do righteous things. Don’t be deceived.
Paul focuses on this problem in Romans and Galatians quite a bit.
Galatians 2 is all about this idea of justification.
In doing research on this topic, I read Vincent’s Word Studies on Galatians 2. He was talking about justification and how it’s commonly viewed as a floaty thing by many, an issue in God’s mind. But this cannot be Paul’s meaning when he speaks of justification. Here is the pertinent paragraph.
The meaning to declare or pronounce righteous cannot be consistently carried through Paul’s writings in the interest of a theological…
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Ian Thomson 