📜WEB · Romans 4:6
What does Romans 4:6 mean?
"Even as David also pronounces blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works,"
— Romans 4:6 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
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.”
Is this blessing then pronounced on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.
Explanation
Romans 4:6 comes in the middle of Paul's extended argument about how a person is made right with God—not through human effort or law-keeping, but through faith. In plain language, the verse says that David, the great king of Israel, spoke of a blessing that comes to a person whom God declares righteous even though that person did nothing to earn it. The word "counts" (sometimes translated "imputes" or "reckons") is an accounting term. It means God credits righteousness to someone's account, not because they deposited good works into it, but as a gift.
To understand the context, Paul wrote this letter to the church in Rome, a mixed community of Jewish and Gentile believers who were wrestling with how the Old Testament law related to the new faith in Christ. In chapter 4, Paul is building his case that justification by faith isn't a new idea invented by Christians—it's rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures themselves. He had just used Abraham as his first example (Genesis 15:6, quoted in Romans 4:3), showing that Abraham was counted righteous through faith, before he was circumcised or performed any notable work of obedience. Now Paul reinforces this with a second witness: David. He goes on in verses 7-8 to quote Psalm 32:1-2, where David celebrates the blessedness of the person whose sins are forgiven and not counted against them. Paul uses David's own words to prove that even under the law and the Psalms, righteousness before God was always understood as a gift, not a wage.
Theologically, this verse is central to the doctrine of justification by fa
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