“For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?”
For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? — Salvation occurred ἐν ἐλπίδι (en elpidi, "in hope")—oriented toward a future not yet grasped. The paradox: ἐλπίς (elpis, "hope") is for the unseen (ὃ ἐλπίζω, ho elpizō, "that which I hope for"); what is visible is not ἐλπίς (elpis, "hope") but possession. Eschatological hope is the mode of present Christian existence.
Church Fathers on Romans 8:24
“For we are saved by hope,” he says. Now since he had dwelt upon the promise of the things to come, and this seemed to pain the weaker hearer, if the blessings are all matter of hope; after proving before that they are surer than things present and visible, and discoursing at large on the gifts already given, and showing that we have received the first fruits of those good things, lest we should seek our all in this world, and be traitors to the nobility that faith gives us,…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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