καύχημα … κατὰ χάριν / κατὰ ὀφείλημα … λογίζεται εἰς δικαιοσύνην (4:2–5)

Says 4:2: εἰ γὰρ Ἀβραὰμ ἐξ ἔργων ἐδικαιώθη, ἔχει καύχημα (kauchēma, "ground for boasting"), ἀλλʼ οὐ πρὸς θεόν. Abbott-Smith lists Rom 4:2 under "ground or matter of glorying" (contrast καύχησις, the act, in 3:27).

Says 4:3 quotes Gen 15:6 with λογίζομαι (logizomai, "to credit, count"), which occurs eleven times in Romans 4. 4:4–5 set two accounts side by side. To the worker the wage, μισθός (misthos), is credited οὐ κατὰ χάριν ἀλλὰ κατὰ ὀφείλημα ("not credited as a gift, but as an obligation," BSB). To the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies τὸν ἀσεβῆ (asebē, "the ungodly"), faith is credited εἰς δικαιοσύνην.

Uncertain εἰς δικαιοσύνην. This note leans to a predicate sense, "as righteousness": λογίζεσθαι εἰς, as in the LXX of Gen 15:6, renders a Hebrew idiom (Abbott-Smith; note.language.Rom.2.26.dikaiomata-logisthesetai), and 4:6 speaks of God crediting righteousness. The alternative is "with a view to righteousness," faith leading to it.

Implies The crediting is God's forensic verdict apart from works. Faith is the instrument through which righteousness is credited, not its ground, and is not itself that righteousness (4:4–6; 3:24–26; 5:18–19; 2 Cor 5:21; Phil 3:9). Imputation, and readings that take faith itself as the righteousness, are left to the doctrinal notes.

Implies The wage picture (ἐργάζομαι, μισθός) excludes working of any kind as the ground, not only works of the law as boundary markers. Dunn takes the image as illustration only (by reference); the one paragraph on the New Perspective is the Exegete's.