What does Romans 8:24 mean?
According to the previous verse, we who trust in Christ and have the Spirit of God are waiting with eager longing. We are looking forward to the completion of our adoption as God's children: the redemption of our bodies. That will happen once these sin-warped bodies of ours finally die and are resurrected in glory, just as Jesus' body was (1 John 3:2).Now Paul writes that the hope of this very thing—resurrection, being with God as His children—is the same hope that brought us to faith in Christ in the first place. It's the thing everyone longs for, but nobody can reach on our own. Sin keeps us from God's eternal glory (Romans 3:23), but God gives it to us as a gift (Romans 6:23).
We're not home, yet, though. This gift is guaranteed. Our hope is certain, but it has not materialized. We can't see it. If we could, Paul writes, it would not be hope. The life of a Christian is a life of anticipation.
