For we are saved hy hope. At the close of the preceding verse Paul had spoken of believers as " waiting for the adoption.'''' They thus wait, because salvation is not a present good, but a future one. We are saved in hope, i. e. in prospect. The dative, in which form the word for hope here occurs, does not in this case express the means by which any thing is done, but the condition or circumstances in which it is. It is, there- fore, analogous to our forms of expression, we have a thing in expectation or prospect. Salvation is a blessing we have in hope, not in possession ; if it be the one, it cannot be the other, since hope that is seen is not hope. It lies in the nature of hope that its object must be future. The word hope is here used objectively for the thing hoped for, as in Col. 1 : 5, "The hope that is laid up for you in heaven ;" Heb. 6 : 18. Eph. 1 : 18, &c. The latter clause of the verse, for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for, is only a confirmation of the previous declaration that it lies in the nature of hope to have reference to the future.
(25) But if we hope for that we see not, &c. That is, ' If hope has reference to the unseen and the future, then as salvation is a matter of hope, it is a matter to be waited for.' (It results, therefore, from the nature of the plan of redemption, that the full fruition of its blessing should not be obtained at once, but that, through much tribulation, believers should enter into the kingdom ; consequently, their being called upon to suffer is not at all inconsistent with their being sons and heirsA Then do we with patience wait for it. There is something more implied in these words than that salvation, because unseen, must be waited for. This no doubt, from the connexion, is the main idea, but we not only wait, but we wait with patience or constancy. {There is something in the very expec- tation of future good, and, especially, of such good, the glory that shall be revealed in us, to produce not only the patient, but even joyful endurance of all present suffering.)
(26) JVof only so. Not only does hope thus cheer and support the suf- fering believer, but likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. Like- wise, literally, in the same way. As hope sustains, so, in the same man- ner, the Spirit does also. Not that the mode of assistance is the same, but simply as the one does, so also does the other. Helpeth, the word thus rendered, means to take hold of any thing with another, to take part in his burden, and thus to aid. It is, therefore, peculiarly expressive and appropriate. It represents the condescending Spirit as taking upon him- self, as it were, a portion of our sorrows to relieve us of their pressure. Our infirmities is the appropriate rendering of the original, which ex- presses the idea both of weakness and suffering. Heb. 4 : 15, " We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmi- ties ;" 2 Cor. 12 : 5, " I will not glory but in mine infirmities."
For we know not what we should pray for as we ought; hut the Spirit, &c. This is said as an illustration and confirmation of the previous general declaration ; it is an example of the way in which the Spirit aids us. ' He helpeth our infirmities, for he teaches us how to pray, dictating