Sometimes I learn things that I already know, but seeing it in new text and new context brings it into fresh light.

For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. (Galatians 5:5)

Paul doesn’t write that we eagerly wait for hope, because we have hope. He doesn’t write that we eagerly wait for righteousness, because we are the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor 5:21).

We wait for “the hope of righteousness.” It’s a specific hope, and not the kind of wistful desire that I think we associate with the word “hope” in our culture. This hope is an expectation, an anticipation.

Because we are made righteous, but we are also being transformed (Romans 12:2), so the fulfillment of our righteousness in the flesh is a process. It’s one that we won’t see completed until Christ returns, but we’re always getting closer.

Paul’s whole letter to the Galatians is to correct their falling back into pointless religious rituals, specifically circumcision. They didn’t need circumcision just like we don’t need religious ritual, if we’re in Christ.

We still sin. We still feel the weight of transgression, and so we turn to rites and traditions to ease our consciences and try to be active in our own renewal. But that discomfort is a tool in God’s hand, because our best efforts are like garbage anyway (Isaiah 64:6).

The way to “get better,” the way to respond to the discomfort of conviction – and the growing desire to be holy as He is holy – is to rest in Him, and trust in the Spirit to renew and lead us. He is the only one who can produce righteousness in us.