Lectures on Genesis 15:6 (ca 1535-1540)

As for the verb חָשַׁב, I do not object very much whether you take it to mean either “to impute” or as "“to think”; for the result remains the same. When the Divine Majesty thinks about me that I am righteous, that my sins have been forgiven, that I am free from eternal death, and when I gratefully grasp this thought of God about me in faith, then I am truly righteous, not through my works but through faith, with which I grasp the divine thought.


For God’s thought is infallible truth. Therefore when I grasp it with a firm thought—not with an uncertain and wavering opinion—I am righteous.

For faith is the firm and sure thought or trust that through Christ God is propitious and that through Christ His thoughts concerning us are thoughts of peace, not of affliction or wrath.

God’s thought or promise, and faith, by which I take hold of God’s promise—these belong together.

Therefore Paul correctly translates the word חָשַׁב with λογίζεσθαι, which also refers to thinking, as does the word “to account”; for if you believe God when He gives a promise, God accounts you righteous.

It is not stated here that God wants to regard the Law, circumcision, or sacrifices as worthy of righteousness. Only His accounting, only that thought of grace concerning us, brings this about.

For righteousness is given to Abraham not because he performs works but because he believes. Nor is it given to faith as a work of ours; it is given because of God’s thought, which faith lays hold of.

Therefore Paul is very adroit in putting such stress on the word “to account” or “to reckon as” (Rom. 4:4–5). “Now to one who works,” he says, “his wages are not reckoned as a gift but as his due. And to one who does not work but trusts Him who justifies the ungodly his faith is reckoned as righteousness”; and a little earlier (Rom. 3:20): “or no human being will be justified in His sight by works of the Law.”

But it is known what the works of the Law are. They are the highest and most beautiful virtues. Do these, then, contribute nothing toward righteousness?

“Nothing,” says Paul; “all our virtues are rejected, and mercy alone avails.”

Even though God demands our virtues and does not want us to be addicted to the lusts of the flesh but earnestly charges us not only to hold them in check but to slay them completely, yet our virtues cannot help us before God’s judgment; for they are polluted and contaminated by lust. Therefore unless God averts His eyes from our sins, yes, even from our righteousness and virtues and reckons us as righteous because of faith, which lays hold of His Son, we are done for. Mercy alone, or the accounting alone, saves us.

Hence our doctrine that we are justified before God solely through His accounting mercy has its foundation in this passage.

This is the source from which Paul has drawn his discussions in Romans and Galatians, where he ascribes righteousness to faith, not to works or the Law. But look at the indifference, the sluggishness, yes, blindness of past times; even Lyra distorts this passage with his interpretation



Luther, M. (1999, c1961). Vol. 3: Luther's works, vol. 3 : Lectures on Genesis: Chapters 15-20 (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (Ge 15:6). Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House.