I was taught it in an on line forum. Turns out a simple dictionary check will confirm it. Justified has more than one meaning. It means to be made righteous, and to be shown to be righteous.
when you go back into the roots of the word, you are right. But, imputed as Paul means is all through the NT without change to a root.
I see too, that James was saying the same thing by just doing a quick word study. He is saying that it results in forming character.
Word studies do help.
And that would be the OT word upright. The Righteous walk as the palm tree. Symbol, upright.
But, we know even the unsaved may seem to be upright.