What Does Genesis 15:6 Mean?

Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. This verse is the most theologically significant verse in chapter 15 and one of the most significant in the entire Bible. Two Hebrew words carry the entire weight: he'emin (he believed, from the root aman — trustworthy, firm, the root of "amen") and tsedaqah (righteousness, the verdict of being in right standing). God did not credit Abram with moral achievement; he credited him with tsedaqah on the basis of he'emin alone. The Apostle Paul quotes this exact verse in Romans 4:3 and Galatians 3:6 as the foundation of his entire doctrine of justification by faith. The sequence is precise: God promised; Abram believed; God credited the belief as righteousness. There is no law-keeping, no circumcision (which comes in chapter 17), no sacrifice that connects the belief to the righteousness verdict. Faith alone is the connection.

The word for "believed" in the Hebrew (he'emin) shares its root with "amen", the word for trustworthy, firm, reliable. Abram said amen to the word of God; he staked his confidence on the reliability of the one who spoke. The result was a righteousness verdict. God looked at the man who had just finished counting the stars and saying "yes, that many" to an impossible promise, and declared him righteous. Not because Abram had accomplished righteousness by his works, but because he trusted the one who could accomplish the impossible and had promised to do so for him.

Paul's treatment of this verse is the most important use of an Old Testament quotation in the New Testament corpus. By placing it before the giving of the law (Sinai, centuries later) and before circumcision (chapter 17, fourteen years later), Paul argues that the righteousness credited by faith was the original pattern of relationship with God, and the law was added afterward for a specific purpose, not as a redefinition of the righteousness-granting mechanism. Jesus is the one whose perfect faithfulness accomplishes the righteousness that is then credited to those who, like Abram, believe the promise of the one who raised Him from the dead.