Romans 8:24Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

“For we were saved by hope,” he continues.

Since the Apostle had so far been speaking of the promise of future blessings, it seemed grievous to the weaker hearer to possess only hope for the blessing.

Therefore he first showed that the future blessings are far more certain than present and visible things.

He also spoke at length of the gifts already bestowed and proved that we have received the firstfruits of the future blessings.

Then, lest we seek everything here and lose the nobility acquired through faith, he says: “For we were saved by hope.”

The meaning of these words is this. We must not seek everything here, but must also hope.

For we brought to God only this one gift, that we believed Him concerning the promise of future blessings. By this path alone we were saved.

Since he had spoken of future things, which many did not believe, he impresses this upon them: Do not doubt, believer, concerning what I say. On the basis of what you have already received, be confident also concerning the future. Formerly, when God granted you great blessings, you brought nothing except faith alone. So now, in hope of future blessings, make use of faith again. For hope is hope precisely when its object is unseen. If someone sees, why does he still hope?

We believe that our bodies will become stronger than corruption and death.

But this lies for us in hope, not as something already present, but as something that will surely come to pass.

We believe that our bodies also must become stronger than death and corruption.

Yet this is laid up for us in hopes, not as something already possessed, but as something that will certainly and in every way be.

We await it, enduring sufferings in patience, so that we may obtain so sacred a gift.

The Apostle says this: “By hope we are saved.” Therefore we have begun to be healed by faith, but our salvation will be perfected when “this corruptible puts on incorruption” and “this mortal puts on immortality” (1 Cor 15:54). This is hope, but not yet fulfillment. Yet whoever rejoices in hope will also receive the fulfillment. Whoever has no hope cannot attain the fulfillment.

For in this hope we fall asleep, that is, we die. “But hope” that consists in sight is not hope. For we do not yet see it at all, as Adam saw his tree. Otherwise, what would we be waiting for and hoping for?

Paul speaks this way because through hope in what God promised in Christ, we have been made worthy of liberation. Therefore we have been freed by hope that the future is as we believe.

“For we were saved in hope,” because we have not yet obtained the resurrection. Having received the promise, we are comforted by hope. “But hope that is seen is not hope. For why does one still hope for what he sees?” See Rom 8:25.

In this place the Apostle has in mind those who have believed in Christ. For when he says that we have the firstfruits of the Spirit, he means that Christians have received the chief gifts of the Holy Spirit. They have acquired greater grace than all those saints who lived before Christ’s coming.

Verses 24-25. Hope bears witness to the firmness of faith, because one can hope only for what does not yet exist and what a man does not see. Such hope also teaches patience. Patience strengthens our soul and thereby saves it (Lk 21:19), making it capable of receiving the Holy Spirit.

Having said this, he adds the observation that the very character of Christian hope, as a state of the soul, requires its object to be removed for a time from those who possess it. “Hope that sees is not hope” (Rom 8:24). Saint Paul then speaks of the firm support this hope finds in the grace of the Holy Spirit, who strengthens human weaknesses.

The farther he proceeds, the more the Apostle enters into the most hidden relations, defining their differing sense and significance in paganism and in Christianity.

Such, for example, is the relation to nature, both inanimate and animate. To this the Apostle also joins all men, as those who groaned more consciously from the abnormality of their condition.

The groans of Christians are also included here, though they are wholly different from other groans, for they are joined to clear hope.

Our hope of future glory has its foundation in the fact that we have received the gift of the Holy Spirit.

This gift forgives our sins, gives strength for the struggle against sin, grants peace of conscience, and gives filial boldness.

He gives the reason why, having received the firstfruits, we lament. It is because we have not yet received everything.

We have received a part, as a sure pledge. The final and perfect thing is still awaited, though we know without doubt that it already belongs to us.

Yet because it is exceedingly good, we cannot help suffering in desire to receive it more quickly. Elsewhere the Apostle said of himself that he burned with desire to depart from the body and be with Christ (see Phil 1:23).

“By hope,” he says, “we were saved.” This does not mean that we are not yet saved. No, we are saved: “we were saved.”

If someone were to die now, he would receive everything that belongs to salvation. But while we live here, we do not yet hold in our hands everything that belongs to the saved.