4:3
Paul is quoting from Gen 15:6. This is what Scripture says, what the Bible says, what God, the God of the Jews, says. “Abraham believed and it was credited to him as righteousness”. There is no mention of works here. All that had happened is that Abraham had believed God’s promise. “Credited” is an accounting term, it refers to a balance sheet, and on the plus side God has counted Abraham’s faith as righteousness. Works did not enter into the equation, only faith.
4:4,5
If someone works then their wages are not given as a gift, but as an obligation. Under your contract if your employer did not pay the correct salary, despite your having worked as agreed, you would rightly complain. And in actually paying you the employer is only doing what he is legally obliged to do, for you have earned it. However, if we show faith in God righteousness is given not as an obligation, for we have done nothing to earn it, but as a gift. Righteousness is freely credited to us. Notice that Paul says “God who justifies the ungodly”. That is us. We are by nature ungodly, indeed every single human being is ungodly by nature. Yet through Christ God justifies us. Earning or deserving does not enter into the equation at all.
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