For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
Parallel translations
- WEB For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
- KJV For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
- NKJV For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
- NASB For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
- NLT For the Scriptures tell us, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Scripture says Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Righteousness comes by believing, not achieving.
Overview
Quoting Genesis 15:6, Paul gives the decisive evidence: Abraham's faith, not his works, was 'accounted to him for righteousness.' The word 'accounted' (or credited) is the language of justification, righteousness reckoned to one's account as a gift. This verse anchors the whole doctrine that we are justified by faith as Abraham was.
Cross-references & the web
Quotation
- Gen 15:6Abram believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness.
Cross-references · 15
- Gen 15:6Abram believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness.
- Jas 2:23And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called a friend of God.
- Gal 3:6–8So also, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
- Rom 4:9Is this blessing only on the circumcised, or also on the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness.
- Rom 4:22–25This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”
- Rom 4:5However, to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.
- Ps 106:31It was credited to him as righteousness for endless generations to come.
- Rom 4:11And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but are not circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them.
- Rom 11:2God did not reject His people, whom He foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says about Elijah, how he appealed to God against Israel:
- Rom 10:11It is just as the Scripture says: “Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame.”
- Rom 9:17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
- 2 Pet 1:20–21Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture comes from one’s own interpretation.
- Mark 12:10Have you never read this Scripture: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
- Isa 8:20To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.
- Jas 4:5Or do you think the Scripture says without reason that the Spirit He caused to dwell in us yearns with envy?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 4:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.