Romans 4:5 teaches that a person is declared right with God not by earning it through work, but by trusting in God, who justifies the ungodly. Faith itself is counted as righteousness, which means God credits a right standing to the one who believes rather than to the one who has done enough to deserve it. The apostle Paul wrote this in his letter to the church in Rome, addressing both Jewish and Gentile believers who were trying to understand how they stood before God.
But to him who doesn’t work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.
Romans 4:5 (WEB)
What Romans 4:5 Means
The verse begins by contrasting two ways of approaching God. The first is through work, where a person does something and expects a payment in return. The second is through trust, where a person simply believes God. Paul says the second is the path he is describing, and he is clear that it applies to someone who is not relying on personal effort to earn acceptance.
The phrase “him who justifies the ungodly” is striking. Paul does not say God justifies the good or the deserving, but the ungodly, meaning those who have no claim of their own. This is not a promise that God overlooks sin or treats it lightly. It describes God’s freedom to declare a person righteous on the basis of faith, not on the basis of a record that has earned it.
What the verse does not say is that works are unimportant in the Christian life or that faith is a mere feeling. Paul elsewhere expects faith to produce a changed life. The verse is answering a narrower question: how a person is first accepted and counted righteous before God.
The Context of Romans 4:5
Paul wrote Romans to a mixed congregation in the city of Rome, where Jewish believers had long taken pride in their heritage and the Law of Moses, and where Gentile believers had come to faith without that background. In chapter 4 he returns to Abraham, the ancestor both groups looked to, to show that Abraham was counted righteous when he believed God, before circumcision and long before the Law was given. That detail matters, because it shows that righteousness through faith is older than the boundaries between Jew and Gentile.
Just before verse 5, Paul asks whether Abraham gained anything by his works, and the surrounding verses quote Genesis 15:6 to show that faith was credited to him as righteousness. Just after, he quotes David in Psalm 32 to show that forgiveness and the covering of sins are described as blessing. Read in this setting, Romans 4:5 is the hinge that connects Abraham’s example with the gift of God’s forgiveness that David celebrated.
Key Phrases in Romans 4:5
Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, that no one would boast.
(WEB)
Paul makes the same point here, that salvation comes by grace through faith and not from works, so that no one can boast. It reinforces the contrast between receiving a gift and earning a wage found in Romans 4:5.
Genesis 15:6
He believed in the LORD, who credited it to him for righteousness.
(WEB)
This is the Old Testament passage Paul quotes in Romans 4:3 to show that Abraham’s belief was counted to him as righteousness. Reading it alongside Romans 4:5 reveals that the principle of faith-based righteousness has been present since the time of Abraham.
A Short Prayer From Romans 4:5
Father, I confess that I often try to earn your approval through what I do, measuring my worth by my effort and my failures. Thank you that you justify the ungodly and count faith as righteousness. Help me to rest in your promise rather than in my record, and let my trust in you shape how I live each day. Teach me to receive your grace with gratitude and to follow you from a heart that already knows it is loved. Amen.
