A careful study reveals that all the English translators of the New Testament (of which I am aware) recognized that the Greek word logizomai - impute - in its contextual usage with the NT doctrine of righteousness always means to reckon, count, or account righteous, never to make righteous. In any of its NT usages, logizomai never means 'to make' but always to consider or to reckon.

The Protestant Reformers and all these translators believed that 'justification by faith' is the same as 'righteousness by faith'. They also believed that justification by faith - righteousness by faith - was not a making inwardly righteous, but a reckoning and declaring legally righteous.

In justification by faith, God does not impute (or charge) our sins against us, but rather He credits Christ's perfect righteousness (perfect obedience and death) to us, and therefore accepts us and treats us as though we were righteous. That is justification by faith or righteousness by faith. The inward renewal of the believing sinner is sanctification.

It bears repeating that logizomai in the context of the NT teaching of 'righteousness by faith' cannot be rendered to mean, making inwardly righteous. Accordingly, the righteousness of 'justification by faith' or 'righteousness by faith'  is not in us! Our righteousness is only in Christ in heaven. The righteousness of sanctification by the indwelling Holy Spirit is in us on earth, but it is a lifelong process of growth and is always relative and not complete in this life.
 
 

NIV = New International Version; NEB = New English Bible; TEV = Today's English Version; RSV = Revised Standard Version; NASB = New American Standard Bible; TCNT = The Twentieth Century New Testament; ASV = The American Standard Version; LB = Living Bible; Bas = New Testament in Basic English.