For in hope were we saved: but hope that is seen is not hope: for who hopeth for that which he seeth?
For we are saved by hope,.... We who have received the firstfruits, who were in a lost perishing condition, and by nature no better than others, than the Gentiles, are saved by sin and wrath to come by Christ, with a spiritual and everlasting salvation.
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? (23) Sixthly, hope is necessarily joined with faith: seeing then that we believe those things which we are not yet in possession of, and hope does not refer to the thing that is present, we must therefore hope and patiently...
24. For by hope, etc. Paul strengthens his exhortation by another argument; for our salvation cannot be separated from some kind of death, and this he proves by the nature of hope. Since hope extends to things not yet obtained, and represents to our minds the form of things hidden and far remote, whatever is either openly seen or really possessed, is not an object of hope.