Jerome : (Verse 5.) For we by the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness through faith. He places the Spirit, to distinguish it from the letter. But the hope of righteousness is to be understood as Christ, because he is the truth, patience, hope, righteousness, and all virtues, whose coming we await according to the judgment of all, and not now with patience, but with righteousness he will come to give to each according to his works. The presence of this God the Apostle and those who are like him, anticipating, say: Thy kingdom come (Matt. 6:10), that when the Son shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father, and shall have been made subject to him in all things, then the head shall be subjected to the body, and God will be all in all (1 Cor. 15). Because he who is now in part, through each individual, will then begin to be the whole through all. — Commentary on Galatians John Chrysostom : We need none of those legal observances, he says; faith suffices to obtain for us the Spirit, and by Him righteousness, and many and great benefits. — Homily on Galatians 5 Oecumenius : "we through the Spirit." For we the faithful, he says, do not expect to be saved by the law, but through the visitation of the Holy Spirit. "by faith wait for the hope of righteousness," expecting to be saved by a share of grace. Well placed is the phrase "by faith." For our faith must be considered, and therefore one receives justification through the Spirit by faith. — Commentary on Galatians Tertullian : Concerning this expectation and hope Paul writes to the Galatians: "For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith." He says "we wait for it," not we are in possession of it. — On the Resurrection of the Flesh