"For us to be made righteous, God expects us to 'do' more than just believe."
Righteous is a forensic term. You have defined grace as God's justice, another forensic term. It is God's mercy in Christ that His justice is satisfied and we are judged righteous before Him. You don't work to be innocent of a crime, either you are or you are not. You don't work to be righteous, either you are or you are not.
Tts 3:5 "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;"
Amen. It was only when I finally understood what justification really was, that Christ had taken on the burden of paying for our sins so that we could actually stand "innocent" before God, that I knew the depth of the gift of God's grace.
Without that understanding, the rest is striving after false pride.
Righteousness is conformity with the law; or, it is the fulfilling, of the law, or that by which we are justified before God. Justification, on the other hand, is the application of this righteousness to anyone. They differ, therefore, as shape and the application of it to an object, or as whiteness and whitening, or making white. Justification admits of the same division which we have made of righteousness, into that which is legal and evangelical. Legal justification consists in effecting in us conformity with God and the law. This is commenced in us when we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Evangelical justification is the application of evangelical righteousness; or, it is the application of the righteousness of another, which is without us in Christ; or, it is the imputation and application of that righteousness which Christ wrought out for us by his death upon the cross, and by his resurrection from the dead. It is not a transfusion of righteousness, or of the qualities thereof; but it is the acquitting, or the declaring us free from sin in the judgment of God, on the ground of the righteousness of another. Justification and the forgiveness of sins are, therefore, the same: for to justify is that God should not impute sin unto us, but accept of us and declare us righteous; or, which is the same thing, that he declare us righteous on the ground of the righteousness of Christ made over unto us. That this is the proper signification of the word is clear from these passages of Scripture in which it occurs: "In thy sight shall no man living be justified," that is, no one shall be acquitted, or declared just by inherent righteousness. "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity," etc. (Ps. 143:2; 31:1-2). Paul, in accordance with this declaration of the Psalmist, interprets justification to be the remission of sins, where the word impute is repeated seven times (Rom. 4: 7).
The Hebrew word for God's justice is not a forensic term. It is undortunate that the Greeks actually translated it with a pagan word which is. The Hebrew term is closer in meaning to 'means of accompliashing salvation' than a forensic term.
God's justice is mercy, unwarranted and underserved forgiveness. It is a term based on love. Hardly a forensic phrase. If we are pure in heart, we are just in God's eyes. Job was not without sin, yet he was just in God's eyes.
Being righteous is in giving. We are all blessed and sharng our blessings so that others may be blessed is an expression of our rigthoeusness (if it comes from our hearts through faith in God). Multiply your talents, BD; God will judge you based on what you have done with them, not on what you believe. Faith without works is a dead faith.