Romans 4 — Credited as Righteousness

Today’s Passage: Romans 4

Chapter 3 declared that righteousness comes apart from the law, through faith. Chapter 4 reaches for the case no Jewish reader could dismiss: Abraham. How was the father of the nation justified? Paul’s answer dismantles every claim of merit. Abraham was reckoned righteous by faith, before he ever obeyed, before he was circumcised, on the strength of nothing but God’s promise. David sings the same gospel from the other side. Then the chapter rises to its summit, where Abraham, against all hope, stands fully persuaded that God was able to do what He had promised, trusting the God who gives life to the dead.

As you read, hold this: Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

Romans 4:1–5 (BSB)

¹ What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has discovered? ² If Abraham was indeed justified by works, he had something to boast about, but not before God. ³ For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” ⁴ Now the wages of the worker are not credited as a gift, but as an obligation. ⁵ However, to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.

If Abraham had been justified by works, he would have grounds to boast, though never before God. So Paul simply lets Scripture answer, turning to Genesis 15:6, where Abraham believed and that faith was credited (λογίζομαι) logizomai, pronounced lo-GID-zo-my. Strong's G3049, to reckon, count, credit to one's account. This is the master word of Romans 4. Paul uses it eleven times in twenty-five verses. Logizomai is a term of the counting-house: to reckon, count, credit, set down to one’s account. It was the ordinary verb a first-century bookkeeper used when entering a figure in a column. The question of the whole chapter is: into whose account is righteousness entered, and on what basis? When Genesis says faith was logizomai to Abraham as righteousness, it does not mean faith is righteousness, or that faith earns it. It means God credited righteousness to Abraham’s account on the basis of his trust. Verses 4–5 sharpen it with commercial precision: to the worker, wages are logizomai as a debt owed; to the one who simply believes, righteousness is logizomai as a gift. The same verb that would record a wage records, instead, a grace. This is imputation in a single Greek word: righteousness not produced by us but reckoned to us. , logizomai, to him as righteousness. Righteousness was not something Abraham generated and presented; it was something God reckoned to his account on the basis of his trust. The father of the faithful was justified in the very same way the worst sinner is.

To pay a worker is not to give a gift; it is to settle a debt. The gospel runs on the opposite logic, for to the one who does not work but believes, righteousness is credited, not as a wage but as a gift. And notice the staggering object of that faith: God justifies the ungodly. He does not justify the improved, the qualified, or the religiously respectable, but the ungodly who simply trust Him.

Romans 4:6–8 (BSB)

⁶ And David speaks likewise of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: ⁷ “Blessed are they whose lawless acts are forgiven, whose sins are covered. ⁸ Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”

Paul calls his second witness. David, quoting Psalm 32, describes the same blessedness from the negative side, not righteousness credited but sin never counted. The same accounting verb appears again, only now in the form God refuses to use against the believer. Abraham receives a righteousness he did not earn, and David is spared a guilt he did incur. Two angles, and one grace.

Romans 4:9–12 (BSB)

⁹ Is this blessing only on the circumcised, or also on the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. ¹⁰ In what context was it credited? Was it after his circumcision, or before? It was not after, but before. ¹¹ And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but are not circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. ¹² And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

Now Paul plays the decisive card, which is timing. When was Abraham declared righteous, before or after circumcision? Not after, but before, for Genesis 15 precedes Genesis 17. Circumcision came later, and only as a seal, a certifying mark confirming a righteousness that faith had already secured. Because Abraham was justified while still uncircumcised, he is the father of all who believe, uncircumcised Gentiles and circumcised Jews alike, provided they walk in the footsteps of the faith he had. Spiritual fatherhood runs through faith, not flesh.

Romans 4:13–17 (BSB)

¹³ For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world was not given through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. ¹⁴ For if those who live by the law are heirs, faith is useless and the promise is worthless, ¹⁵ because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression. ¹⁶ Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may rest on grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. ¹⁷ As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the presence of God, in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not yet exist.

The promise that Abraham would inherit the world came centuries before the law of Moses, so it could not have depended on law-keeping. If heirship hangs on obedience, then faith is useless and the promise is worthless, because the law can only bring wrath. A promise tied to our own performance is not really a promise at all; it is a contract we are certain to default on.

This is the hinge, that the promise may rest on grace and may be guaranteed. God chose faith as the means so that salvation would be secure, for a promise resting on grace is guaranteed when its security lies in the Giver and not in the receiver. And then the God of the promise is named by His greatest acts: He gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not yet exist. This is the God of creation and resurrection, the only kind of God who could make a promise this large and keep it.

Romans 4:18–25 (BSB)

¹⁸ Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” ¹⁹ Without weakening in his faith, he acknowledged the decrepitness of his body (since he was about a hundred years old) and the lifelessness of Sarah’s womb. ²⁰ Yet he did not waver through disbelief in the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, ²¹ being fully persuaded that God was able to do what He had promised. ²² This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” ²³ Now the words “it was credited to him” were written not only for Abraham, ²⁴ but also for us, to whom righteousness will be credited—for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. ²⁵ He was delivered over to death for our trespasses and was raised to life for our justification.

Here Paul paints faith at its fullest. Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed. The circumstances offered him nothing, for his own body and Sarah’s womb were as good as dead, and faith did not pretend otherwise but honestly acknowledged the impossibility. Yet he did not waver through disbelief. He was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, fully persuaded that God was able to do what He had promised. To trust the promise against all visible odds is to honor Him as God, for Abraham’s faith was never a leap into the dark; it was confidence in the One who calls the dead to life.

Then Paul hands Abraham’s blessing to every believer. The words were written not only for Abraham, but also for us, and the same righteousness will be credited, logizomai, to all who believe in the God who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. Abraham trusted the God who could bring life from his own dead body, and we trust the God who brought life from the tomb. Verse 25 grounds it all: Christ was delivered over to death for our trespasses and was raised to life for our justification. His death paid our debt, and His resurrection is God’s receipt, the public proof that the payment was accepted and that righteousness is now ours to receive by faith.