‘Now to him who works, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt, but to him that who does not work, but believe on him who reckons as in the right the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness.'
Paul now brings out the significance of that Scripture in respect of the matter they are dealing with. When it comes to man being rewarded for his works, the reward is not looked on as ‘of grace' (freely given as an undeserved favour), but as of debt (it has been duly earned and the worker is thus receiving only what is due to him). In contrast we have the case of the man whose ‘reward' is ‘of grace. He believes on Him who ‘justifies the ungodly while they are still in an ungodly state', and his faith is reckoned for righteousness. The principle here is very important. The moment works enters into the equation to any extent then it puts God under an obligation. Thus ALL works have to be excluded. God does not owe us anything. He does not justify us because our faith makes up for what is lacking in our works. He justifies us when we truly believe in Him regardless of any works. It is all ‘of grace' (God's unmerited favour). And Paul underlines this by stressing that the one who is justified is so even though he is yet ungodly.
Note how boldly he declares that God justifies the ungodly while he is still ungodly. In that case there can be no question of the man being justified by his works. He is ungodly. He deserves nothing. Thus his being ‘justified, reckoned as righteous', in other words his ‘justification', could only spring from his response of faith towards a justifying God (Who is ‘just and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus' - Romans 3:28). Note how this ‘ungodliness' reflects Romans 1:18. There has been great emphasis on how God has dealt with man's unrighteousness. Here now is God's answer to man's proven ungodliness. It confirms his argument in Romans 3:28 that, ‘We reckon therefore that a man is justified (reckoned as in the right) by faith apart from the works of the law.'
We may, of course, react against the suggestion that Abraham had been ungodly, but in that case we need to remember that initially he had no doubt been involved in the worship of idols, for we are told that ‘your fathers dwelt in the past beyond the River (Euphrates), even Terah the father of Abraham --- and they served other gods' (Joshua 24:2). Thus Abraham had been brought up to worship false gods, until God called him and he believed and responded. It was when he was yet ungodly that God had initially called him. And it was then that God's righteousness came to him and he was ‘accounted as righteous'.
‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness.' We must not see this as signifying that God saw Abraham's faith and approved of it and thus recognised him as righteous on the basis of his ‘righteous faith', as though his faith was a work of which God approved, shining out above his other works. Rather the thought is that Abraham was reckoned as righteous by God because he responded in faith to God, disregarding all works that he had done. The verb chashab followed by the preposition ‘l' always refers to something being reckoned to someone regardless of their right state. Thus Shimei asks David not to reckon his guilt against him but to treat him as though he were innocent (2 Samuel 19:20). Compare also Leviticus 7:18; Numbers 18:27; Numbers 18:30.