13 As he had done at the close of the first section in this chapter (v.5), Paul again expresses his desire that God will meet the needs of his readers. Although the subject of the last things has little formal place in Romans, its subjective counterpart, "hope", is mentioned more often than in any other of his letters, especially here (vv.4, 12-13).

The expression "the God of hope" (v.13) means the God who inspires hope in his children. He can be counted on to fulfill what yet remains to be accomplished for them (5:2; 13:11). Likewise, in the more immediate future and with the help of Paul's letter, they can confidently look to God for the working out of their problems, including the one Paul has been discussing. Hope does not operate apart from trust; in fact, it is the forward-looking aspect of faith (Gal 5:5; 1Pe 1:21). Paul expects a rich, abounding experience of hope along with an overflowing of love (Php 1:9; 1Th 3:12; 4:10), of pleasing God (1Th 4:1), and of thanksgiving (Col 2:7). Believers can count on God to enable them to increase in the manifestation of Christian graces "by the power of the Holy Spirit" who lives in them and fills the inner life.

40:31 To wait entails confident expectation and active hope in the Lord—never passive resignation (Ps. 40:1). Mount up … run … walk depicts the spiritual transformation that faith brings to a person. The Lord gives power to those who trust in Him. eagles: The eagle depicts the strength that comes from the Lord. The Lord describes His deliverance of the Israelites in Ex. 19:4 as similar to being lifted up on an eagle’s strong wings. In Ps. 103:5, the strength of people who are nourished by God is compared to the strength of the eagle.

1 Faith is a present and continuing reality, not simply a virtue sometimes practiced in antiquity. It is a living thing, a way of life the writer wishes to see continued in the practice of his readers. Faith, he tells us, is a "being sure" of things hoped for. The word used here sometimes has a subjective meaning, as NIV translates it (cf. also "confidence" in 3:14). But it may also be used more objectively ("substance"), though this does not seem to be what the writer is saying. There are realities for which we have no material evidence, though they are not the less real for that. Faith enables us to know that they exist and, while we have no certainty apart from faith, faith does give us genuine certainty. Faith is the basis, the substructure of all that the Christian life means, all that the Christian hopes for.

There is a further ambiguity about the word translated "certain", which usually signifies a "proof" or "test." Some take it here as "test" and some see its legal use, while many prefer to understand it in much the same sense as the preceding expression (e.g., NIV). If we were to adopt the meaning "test," then the author is saying that faith, in addition to being the basis of all that we hope for, is that by which we test things unseen. We have no material way of assessing the significance of the immaterial. But Christians are not helpless. We have faith and by this we test all things. "What we do not see" excludes the entire range of visible phenomena which here stand for all things earthly. Faith extends beyond what we learn from our senses. Its tests are not those of the senses, which yield uncertainty.