What Does Romans 4:6 Mean?
Just as David also describes the flourishing of the one to whom God counts alignment without works.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,THE KEY
God’s reckoning names alignment and flourishing without making either a wage for work.
THE MEANING
God counts you as aligned apart from your works; this standing is received, not achieved. The verse calls the person in this condition flourishing now, without presenting any work as its cause.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that God counts you as aligned only after you have done enough to deserve it.
THE ROOT
λογίζεται
logizetai
GROWS FROM
λογ- (log-), in the λογίζομαι (logizomai) word family
to reckon, count, or consider
The word pictures a reckoning: God counts alignment to the person apart from works. English can make “imputeth” sound like a distant accounting term, while its word family keeps the act of counting in view.
ALSO GROWS
logizomai: reckon, count, consider
λογίζομαι
It is the verb used here: God counts alignment to the person.
logismos: reckoning, reasoning, or calculation
λογισμός
This related noun keeps the sense of a formed calculation close to the verb’s act of counting.
δικαιοσύνην
dikaiosynēn
GROWS FROM
δικ- (dik-), in the δίκαιος (dikaios) word family
what is right or just; alignment
The word names the alignment God counts to the person. Beside “imputeth,” it shows that alignment is received in God’s reckoning rather than presented as the result of works.
ALSO GROWS
dikaios: just, right, aligned
δίκαιος
It describes the person’s relation to what is right, the state named by the noun.
dikaioō: to set right, declare right, or justify
δικαιόω
This related verb brings the same family’s movement toward a right standing into view.
μακαρισμόν
makarismon
GROWS FROM
μακαρ-
makar-
flourishing; the condition of being called flourishing
The verse calls the person flourishing in the same sentence that describes God counting them as aligned apart from works. Flourishing is presented as the condition of this person, not as a prize earned by labor.
ALSO GROWS
makarios: flourishing
μακάριος
This adjective names the person as flourishing in the related line quoted in Romans 4:8.
makarizō: call flourishing or fortunate
μακαρίζω
This related verb shows the family’s connection to naming someone’s condition as flourishing.
THE PATTERN
God’s reckoning and gift locate alignment beyond what human work can earn.
And he leaned his weight on the LORD, and he counted it to him as alignment.Flourishing is a person to whom the LORD does not count crookedness, and in whose breath there is no deceit.Not from works of alignment that we did, but according to his compassion he delivered us, through the bath of rebirth and the making new of the Set-Apart Breath.THE THREAD
Flourishing is the one whose falling short the LORD will never count.Romans 4:8 uses the same reckoning verb: the Lord does not count the person’s missing against them. Beside verse 6, the two lines show one account from both sides, alignment counted, missing uncounted, and call the person flourishing.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us