📜WEB · Romans 4:5
What does Romans 4:5 mean?
"But to him who doesn’t work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness."
— Romans 4:5 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not toward God.
For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as something owed.
But to him who doesn’t work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.
Even as David also pronounces blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works,
“Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man whom the Lord will by no means charge with sin.”
Explanation
Romans 4:5 makes a striking claim: God declares a person righteous not because of what they have done, but because they trust in the God who justifies the ungodly. In plain terms, Paul is saying that righteousness before God does not come as payment for good works or religious effort. Instead, it comes as a gift, credited to a person simply because they believe—they place their trust in God. The phrase "justifies the ungodly" is deliberately shocking. It does not say God justifies the somewhat good, or the religiously observant, but the ungodly—those who have no righteous standing of their own to offer.
To understand this verse, it helps to see where Paul is going with his argument. Paul, writing to the church in Rome around the mid-first century, is addressing both Jewish and Gentile believers who were wrestling with how a person is made right with God. In the verses just before this one, Paul appeals to Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, as his prime example. He quotes Genesis 15:6, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness." Paul's point is that Abraham was declared righteous before he was circumcised and before the Mosaic law even existed. So righteousness could never have depended on law-keeping or ritual performance—it depended on faith. Romans 4:5 generalizes this principle: what was true for Abraham is true for anyone. The one who does not rely on their own works, but trusts God, receives the same kind of righteousness Abraham received.
Theologically, this verse is central to Paul's teaching on justification by faith, a theme that runs
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