Galatians 5:5-6. 5For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
Hope. Faith. Love. The three great Christian virtues. You’ve probably heard of these three before, maybe from 1 Corinthians 13. But here, in Galatians, we find Paul’s first use of all three virtues in one line of thought.
Hope. Even though faith is mentioned first, hope is where it all begins. Because of the indwelling life of Christ, we have the “hope of righteousness.” Hope is a joyful and confident expectation. In the Bible, hope is not like it is for us in our culture—something we want but have no idea if it will really happen. In the New Testament, hope is assurance. Union with Christ is this assurance of our present and future righteousness.
Faith. Our hope, our assurance, requires faith. By faith we wait for what we already have—“the hope of righteousness.” The assurance is always there, but it is not always trusted. God gave us our hope in Christ. But you must believe it each moment of each day. You have to trust it to be your future, instead of the future you are trying to create for yourself. The law does not require faith. It requires work, effort, and trying real hard until it crushes you. Our hope is in our righteousness in Christ, and this hope-filled reality creates both faith and faithfulness.
Love. Our hope produces faith, and that faith produces love. Because I have the hope of righteousness through the indwelling life of Christ, and I trust in this hope, I am free to love from a pure heart. Not merely from reciprocity, attachment, or what I can get out of it in the present, but rather, from a future hope. Because I know that one day I will have all things, I can sacrifice my life for you today. I can love from the knowledge that I am loved—not from trying to earn love.
Our freedom in Christ moves us from hope, to faith, to love. Our life in Christ is rooted in the confident and joyful assurance of a hope founded upon the righteousness of Christ in me. My faith in this hope means that I am trusting that I am fully righteous and fully loved for all time. Love then flows from this faith in the hope-filled assurance of God’s love for me. This is the only way for us to live that will not crush us, but rather produce the abundant life that Jesus promised.
You: In your spiritual walk, do you experience hope, faith, and love?
You in Christ: How does our union with Chris give us the “hope of righteousness?”
Christ in you: How does the assurance of hope in Christ produce faith and love in a Christian’s life? How can you see this dynamic at work in your own life?
Pray: Father, the hope you’ve given me in Christ is my firm foundation and source of faith and love. Let these virtues flow from me today in abundance. Amen.
