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Gal_5:5. Ground e contrario for the judgment passed in Gal_5:4 on those becoming righteous by the law; derived, not generally from what makes up the essence of the Christian state (Hofmann), but specially from the specific way in which Paul and those like him expect to be justified. The reasoning presupposes the certainty, of which the apostle was conscious, that the ἡμεῖς are those who are not separated from Christ and have not fallen from grace.
ἡμεῖς ] we, on our part: “qui a nobis dissentiunt, habeant sibi,” Bengel.
πνεύματι ἐκ πίστεως ] is not (with Luther) to be considered as one idea (“Spiritu, qui ex fide est”), since there is no contrast with any other spirit, but rather as two points opposed to the ἐν νόμῳ in Gal_5:4 : “by means of the Spirit, from faith, we expect,” etc.; so that the Holy Spirit is the divine agent, and faith in Christ is the subjective source of our expectation. On πνεύματι , comp. Rom_7:6; Rom_8:4; Rom_8:15 f., Eph_1:13 f., Eph_2:22, et al.; and on ἐκ πίστεως , comp. Gal_2:16, Gal_4:22, Rom_1:17; Rom_3:22; Rom_9:30; Rom_10:6, et al. We must not therefore explain πνεύματι either as the spirit of man simply (with Grotius, Borger, Fritzsche, and others), or (comp. on Rom_8:4) as the spiritual nature of man sanctified by the Holy Spirit (Winer, Paulus, Rückert, and others; comp. Baumgarten-Crusius, de Wette, Hofmann); but similarly to Gal_5:16, as the objective πνεῦμα ἅγιον , which is the divine principle of spiritual life in Christians, and which they have received ἐξ ἀκοῆς πίστεως (Gal_3:2; Gal_3:5, Gal_4:6). And the Holy Spirit is the divine mainspring of Christian hope, as being the potential source of all Christian sentiment and Christian life in general, and as the earnest and surety of eternal life in particular (2Co_1:22; 2Co_5:5; Eph_1:14; Rom_8:11; Rom_8:23).
ἐλπίδα δικαιοσύνης ἀπεκδεχ .] ἀπεκδέχεσθαι (Rom_8:19; Rom_8:23; Rom_8:25; 1Co_1:7; Php_3:20; 1Pe_3:20) does not indeed denote that he who waits is wholly spent in waiting (Hofmann), but rather (comp. generally Winer, de verb. compos. IV. p. 14) the persistent awaiting, which does not slacken until the time of realization (C. F. A. Fritzsche in Fritzschior. Opusc. p. 156). The genitive δικαιοσύνης is not appositionis (Wieseler), so that the sense would be: “the righteousness hoped for by us,” the genitive with ἐλπίς never being used in this way; but it is the genitive objecti: the hope of being justified, namely, in the judgment, where we shall be declared by Christ as righteous. At variance with the context, since justification itself is in question (see Gal_5:4), others understand it as the genitive subjecti, as that which righteousness has to hope for,[224] that is, the hoped for reward of righteousness, namely, eternal life. So Pelagius, Beza, Piscator, Hunnius, Calovius, Bengel, Rambach, Baumgarten, Zachariae, Koppe, Borger, Paulus, Windischmann, Reithmayr, and others; comp. also Weiss, bibl. Theol. pp. 333, 341. The fact that the δικαιοσύνη itself—that is, the righteousness of faith, and not that of a holy life (Holsten)—is presented as something future, need not in itself surprise us, because during the temporal life it exists indeed through faith, but may nevertheless be lost (see Gal_5:2; Gal_5:4), and is not yet a definitive possession, which it only comes to be at the judgment (Rom_8:33 f.). In a corresponding way, the υἱοθεσία , although it has been already entered upon through faith (Gal_3:26, Gal_4:5), is also the object of hope (Rom_8:23). This at the same time explains why Paul here speaks in particular of an ἐλπὶς δικαιοσύνης ; he thereby indicates the difference between the certainty of salvation in the consciousness (Rom_8:24) of the true Christians, and the confidence, dependent upon works, felt by the legally righteous, who say: ἐν νόμῳ δικαιούμεθα , because in their case the becoming righteous is something in a continuous course of growth by means of meritorious obedience to the law. Lastly, the expression ἀπεκδέχεσθαι ἐλπίδα is not to be explained by the supposition that Paul, when he wrote ἐλπίδα , had it in his mind to make ἔχομεν follow (Winer, Usteri, Schott),—an interpretation which is all the more arbitrary, because there is no intervening sentence which might divert his thought,—but the hope is treated objectively (comp. on Col_1:5; Rom_8:24; Heb_6:18), so that ἀπεκδέχεσθαι ἐλπίδα belongs to the category of the familiar expressions ζῆν βίον , πιστεύειν δόξαν (Lobeck, Paralip. p. 501 ff.). Comp. Act_24:15 : ἐλπίδα … ἣν καὶ αὐτὸ οὗτοι προσδέχονται , Tit_2:13; Job_2:9; Isa_28:10; 2Ma_7:14; Eur. Alc. 130: νῦν δέ τίνʼ ἔτι βίου ἐλπίδα προσδέχωμαι ; Dem. 1468. 13: ἐλπίδα … προσδοκᾶσθαι . The Catholic doctrine of the gradual increase of righteousness (Trident. vi. 10. 24, Döllinger) is entirely un-Pauline, although favoured by Romang, Hengstenberg, and others. Justification does not, like sanctification, develope itself and increase; but it has, as its moral consequence (Gal_4:6), sanctification through the Spirit, which is given to him who is justified by faith. Thus Christ is to us δικαιοσύνη τε καὶ ἁγιασμός , 1Co_1:30.
[224] Hofmann, in fact, arrives at the same result, although he rejects the interpretation of the genitive as the gen. subjecti: “To wait for the blessing of righteousness already prepared for him, which constitutes the substance of his hope,”—consequently for the στέφανος of his δικαιοσύνη , 2Ti_4:8 (see Huther in loc. ed. 3).