What does it mean to hope for what we do not see (Romans 8:25)?

“For we are saved in hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” Hope is an essential part of Christian character — “an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast” (Heb. 6:19), not a matter of indefinite uncertainty: if it were so, we should not wait with patience, but with doubts and fears. Faith gives the certainty that hope shall be fulfilled — when, we know not, but faith also makes us content to wait patiently. This is true “patience of hope.”

When speaking about "hope," we must recollect it is not in the least like human hope (as though the thing was uncertain). In ordinary language I might say, "I hope such a person will come tomorrow," when that was extremely uncertain. Not so with "hope" in divine things. All that is meant is, that the thing hoped for is not present: "If we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it," because it is certainly coming.

We are saved; but it is by hope. As yet we see not that for which we hope. If it were visible, then hope should have no place. We hope, then, for that we see not. But though we see it not, yet knowledge is the ground of our hope. The certified assurance of the God who cannot lie is the pure fountain of a Christian's hope. But hope thus born creates desire; and growing desire brings a sickness to the heart whose quickened consciousness of prospective liberty brings the more forcibly and sensibly upon the spirit the actual pressure of still-protracted bondage. A free spirit, in a bound and vile body, must groan. Thus the operation of the Spirit, in stimulating the desires of the believer's heart for the promised glory, makes room for the proper knowledge and enjoyment of God as the God of patience: "If we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it."

"For we, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption," that is, the full manifestation of what we are as sons of God, now hidden. That involves the body being glorified. We wait, therefore, for the adoption, that is, the redemption of the body. The firstfruits of the Spirit would seem to imply that after all what we possess in this way is but a pledge in anticipation of that which is to come, and we who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, on that very account, are made to groan. The hope we have of a condition so different from the present makes us only the more groan over the present. Our salvation is in hope, as to the full character of it. Of course, there is a salvation of which we can say already that God hath saved us. If it be a question simply of guilt and condemnation, then we are already completely saved; but salvation is very commonly looked at in a very different way from this, and it implies deliverance of the body itself and the fulfilment of all God's purposes as to us. We are saved now in hope, but then that means that we have not got before us that which we hope for. If we behold it, how can we still hope for it? "If we hope for what we behold not, then do we with patience wait for it." How beautiful a thought it is that this hope is so perfect, there is such complete assurance with regard to it, that the not having it only produces patience in us — not doubt, but patience! All human hopes may possibly disappoint, but die hope which God has given us is as sure as if we already possessed it. We wait with patience, and the patience itself is holy discipline for us. We wait upon His will, but all that He can give us in the way of assurance is already ours.

No one doubts that "hope" distinctively looks at the future; but there is neither uncertainty nor a weakening of the actual present blessing in Scripture. The redemption of our body is wholly future; and therefore, the apostle says, were we saved in hope. It is not seen yet.

Verse 22. “For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” Mark, it is not for the salvation of our souls we wait, and hope, but for the redemption of the body. It may be from the grave, or it may be we shall be changed in a moment. It will be at the coming of the Lord. As to the body, even we have no relief from groaning, and suffering, until the coming of our Lord. We see not that yet, and therefore we wait and hope. It is a fatal mistake to suppose all this means that we do not know we have salvation; on the contrary, we know we have eternal life — “He that believes has eternal life.” There is no waiting or hoping for that. But we can wait in patience for the redemption of the body.

*The word rendered "hope" is often given as "wait," though not the same word as in the former part of the verse. It "imports properly a long and patient waiting," combined with the expectation of the thing waited for.

This is described as waiting for something that is not seen but which has been promised. Rom. 8:24-25. Blessed is the man whose hope the Lord is; though troubles arise he will not cease to bear fruit. Jer. 17:7-8. There is nothing vague in the Christian's hope: it is an anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast, because the Lord Himself is his hope, and Christ in him is the hope of glory. Col. 1:27; 1 Tim. 1:1; Heb. 6:18-19. The coming of the Lord, and not death, is a blessed part of the Christian's hope. 1 Thess. 4:13-18; 1 John 3:2-3.

Hope on, perfectly or steadfastly. Diligence and sobriety are here followed with confidence. Hope unto the end signifies fully, perfectly, the full assurance of hope (Heb. 6:11); hope which maketh not ashamed. Be it remarked that the New Testament sense of hope is never uncertainty, but immature or deferred certainty. Confidence, therefore, characterizes it as much as expectation; and thus, instead of being in doubt and uncertainty, in quietness and in confidence is our strength. The world has its hopes, but they are so steeped in uncertainty that the word hope has become almost synonymous with doubt; whereas the believer is so confident as to that which constitutes his hope, that he can say, "If we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it." (Rom. 8:25.) "The grace that is to be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ" we surely see not. With patience then we wait for it, because our hope is steadfast and blessed. He will surely come, He will not tarry; and oh, what tides of blessing will His presence usher in! "The grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ."

The very fact of hope dwelling in and stimulating the soul, is evidence that there is much awaiting the child of God. It tells its own tale to the world, which has no hope, no certain prospect for time, whose eyes are sightless, and oh! how dark for eternity! "What a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for"? (Rom. 8:24.) What the world offers man sees, but for what God spiritually gives it has no sight. Faith possesses all things, and hope stretches on to the fulness of the possession, yet in no rest less mood, for patience sits by the side of hope in the christian's soul, and teaches him to wait for the glory of his God. "If we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it." (Rom. 8:25).