What does Romans 4:22 mean?

Romans 4:22 comes at the conclusion of Paul's extended argument about Abraham's faith, and the verse itself is actually a quotation from Genesis 15:6, which Paul has been building toward throughout this chapter. In plain language, the verse says that because of what Abraham did—or rather, because of what he trusted—God considered him righteous. The "it" refers back to Abraham's faith, specifically his belief in God's promise that he would become the father of many nations despite his and Sarah's old age and inability to have children. God counted, or "credited," that faith as righteousness, as if it were a payment that settled Abraham's account before God.

Paul wrote Romans to the church in Rome, a congregation made up of both Jewish and Gentile believers who were wrestling with questions about how a person is made right with God and how Jewish and Gentile Christians relate to one another under the new covenant. In chapter 4, Paul uses Abraham—the father of the Jewish nation and a towering figure of faith—as his prime example to prove a point he has been making since chapter 3: that righteousness before God has always come through faith, not through works of the law or religious performance. Paul notes that Abraham was declared righteous in Genesis 15, before he was circumcised in Genesis 17, which means circumcision (and by extension, law-keeping) could not have been the basis of his righteousness. This was crucial for Paul's Gentile readers, who had not been circumcised and had no claim to the Mosaic law, yet could still be full heirs of the same promise through faith.