Romans 4:5

Romans 4:5. But to him that worketh not; to one who does not work for hire. The statement is general, including Abraham, but not specifically applied to him.

Believeth on him. The idea of trustfully resting on is suggested by the original.

That justifieth. Here any other idea than that of accounting righteous is forbidden by the connection.

The ungodly; the ungodly individual, the original is in the singular. The word is chosen to present a strong contrast of ‘justifying,' one who is alienated from God is yet accounted righteous by God

His faith, etc. Meyer, while insisting that the merit of Christ always remains the meritorious cause, to which we are indebted for the imputation of our faith, objects to the usual view that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, on the ground that thus the subjective apprehension of Christ is confounded with the apprehended Christ, the objective ground of imputation. But the next verse speaks of God's reckoning righteousness to a man, and the profound discussion at the close of chap. 5 points more directly to the imputation of Christ's righteousness. Comp. the Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 60.