As for us is literally “for we.” “For” indicates that Paul here presents an argument which in a sense explains the previous verse by pointing up the contrasts involved. “We” is emphatic and refers to Paul and others who do not depend on the Law but on Christ, in contrast to those who depend on the Law. An exclusive form of “we” would suit the context better: “we” in contrast to “you” in the previous verse.
The statement of verse 5 seems to summarize everything that Paul has been talking about. Revised Standard Version translates it as “For through the Spirit, by faith, we wait for the hope of righteousness.” “Righteousness” means here, as it does in 2.16 and 2.21, God’s activity of putting men right with himself. This is what we hope for, and “hope” includes the elements of assurance and expectation. That is also what we wait for. The verb used is intensive and can be translated “to wait eagerly” or “to wait patiently.” In a number of languages hope can only be expressed as involving a combination of confidence and expectation with regard to the future. One may translate our hope as “we look forward to what will happen and we are sure of it.”
This “righteousness” is therefore in the future, and the Good News Translation rendering is correct: God will put us right with him. One should not, however, deduce from this that Paul did not believe in the experience of a right relationship with God as a present reality. It may be that here he is talking eschatologically, that is, of the final day, when man will experience perfect and full reconciliation with God.
“Spirit” here does not have the article, and while some understand that this means “spirit” in contrast to “flesh,” most translators take it to refer to the Holy Spirit, in accordance with general Pauline usage (compare 3.3). “By faith” could have as its object either “God” or “Christ.” As elsewhere, “faith” here has the element not only of belief, but also of trust and confidence in someone.
Some take “through the Spirit” to be connected with the waiting (New American Bible “it is in the spirit that we eagerly await”), while others take it to be connected with the hoping (Knox “all our hope of justification lies in the spirit”). “By faith,” on the other hand, is sometimes connected with the hoping (Knox “it [hope] rests on our faith”), while others connect it with the waiting (Phillips “it is by faith that we await in His Spirit the righteousness we hope to see”). Good News Translation connects “through the Spirit” with the waiting; whereas New English Bible connects “the Spirit” with the hoping. Both Good News Translation and New English Bible relate “faith” to the work of the Spirit. But the other renderings can also be regarded as legitimate.
And this is what we wait for is essentially equivalent to “this is what we are looking forward to”; expectation is one of the components of hope.
If the phrase by the power of God’s Spirit is to be understood with hope, one may need to translate “we hope because of what God’s Spirit has done.” Similarly, if through our faith is likewise to be combined with hope, one may also say “we hope by means of our faith in Christ,” “… because of our confidence in Christ,” or “… because we trust in Christ.” If, however, by the power of God’s Spirit and through our faith are regarded as qualifying the way in which we wait for God to put us right with him, one may translate “this is what we are waiting for; God’s Spirit helps us and we are sustained by our trust in Christ.”
Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1976. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .