Galatians 5:5 - Waiting for glory...

"For we ourselves, by [the] Spirit out of faith, [for the] hope of righteousness are waiting."

-Our right standing with God is not to be found in doing the law.  No, no, no.  Our righteousness comes out of faith.  We’re waiting, hoping for it, that which will be the final installment.

-The hope of righteousness. The prospect of one day being able to present ourselves face to face with our thrice-holy heavenly Father and hear Him say, "Well done".  To be able to simply stand in His presence and NOT hear those fateful words, "Depart from Me, cursed ones, I never knew you."  Being able to stand there because we are righteous.  In His eyes, in other words, we will have done everything right.  Everything.  Right.  That's right.  That's what righteousness is.  In this life, saddled as we are till death do us part with a fallen fleshy propensity to choose what is not right, the state of being fully right is an anticipated future reality, real enough now in the eyes of the One with Whom we have to do, but still anticipated and hoped for by those whose hope, whose faith is in the One Who alone is righteous, Jesus Christ.  Our heavenly Father sees us in Christ right now, thru faith, having done everything right (exhale a long sigh of relief for THAT truth!), but for now, the substance is something hoped for (cf Hebrews 11.1).  

-This of course has been the recurring message of Paul's letter, that righteousness comes thru faith.  Faith alone (tho not thru faith which is alone...). Which is exactly what he says again here.  We, those who have put their faith and trust in what Jesus did on the cross, are eagerly and patiently (which actually means long-suffering) waiting (for Him, on Him) for THIS day - for His provision of glorious grace and hope and all that we need even-and-especially-in-the-midst-of-suffering-if-necessary today - AND for THAT day, the day of future glory.

-And do not miss the mention here of the Spirit, the vital role of the Holy Spirit by Whom we began this journey, this waltz with Jesus - through faith - and Who not only encourages and fills our hearts with hope and glimpses of glory each day but gives us the grace and power to progress and persevere towards THAT glorious day, that day above all other days when that which is true of us in the heavenlies will become reality.  We will be changed, in an instant, in the blink of an eye.  We will jettison our old dying (or dead) tents and be clothed from head-to-toe with breathtaking goodness, a glorious new heavenly dwelling, one which will never die and which is unable to sin.  Completely unable to choose anything other than what God wants.  Perfect and full of glory - like Him (cf 1John 3.2)!  In this life, through faith and through the Help of His Spirit we are constantly progressing towards this goal.  In Christ and by His Spirit we begin our journey from the place where we are unable to NOT sin (the way we WERE) to being ABLE to not sin, to choose what God wants.  But we are not yet perfect.  We have not yet arrived.  In this life we still stumble and fall into sin along the way.  We have a long long way to go, many miles to go before we awake in that heavenly city of light, full of glory, not a blemish in sight.  And so we wait...