◄ What Does Galatians 5:5 Mean? ►

As believers, we are waiting for the "hope of righteousness." We do not hope FOR righteousness, for we are already in right standing with the Lord. We have already been made righteous in Christ, by grace through faith, and the day is coming when we will put off this old mortal body and finally be clothed in our promised, glorified body.

We are already clothed in the righteousness of God; forever accepted by the Father in the Beloved because we are in union with Christ. We are already members of His Body and identified by grace through faith with our God, but we also wait for our promised inheritance which is incorruptible, undefiled, unfading, and reserved for us in heaven.

Our right standing with God is not of ourselves for there is none righteous, not even one. Our righteousness is a free gift of grace to all who are redeemed through the death, burial, and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a righteousness that is imparted to us by the Father of all mercies and a righteousness that is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit of God.

We are to journey through life in the sphere of grace and not works, for we are positioned in Christ as a free gift of God. And we are to quietly wait, with patient endurance, for the Lord Jesus Christ Who is the glorious object of our hope, for we, through the Spirit, are waiting for the hope of righteousness, when this corruptible body shall have put on incorruption and this mortal frame shall put on immortality.

As Christians, we are not working to attain our own righteousness through meritorious acts, works of the Law, or fleshly pursuits. We are to live and move and have our being in Christ. We are to abide in Him and rest in Him, as through the Spirit of God we watch and wait for His any day return, when we shall see Him as He is and be forever with the Lord: "Through the Spirit of God, by faith, we wait for the hope of righteousness."

Heavenly Father, I pray that I may wait with patience and grace as, through the power of the Holy Spirit, I continue to look for the any day return of the Lord Jesus and wait for the glorious ‘hope of righteousness’. Help me to know You more and more with each passing day, and may my life and conversation be a true reflection of the life of Christ living in me. In Jesus' name, AMEN.