Cassian and Jyn are walking through Jedha City, looking for the sister of one of Cassian's contacts.
He explains to Jyn, "We'll give her your name and hope that gets us a meeting with Saw," to which Jyn asks, "Hope?"
Cassian replies in a somewhat mocking tone, "Yeah. Rebellions are built on hope."
Often today, people will interchange the words hope and faith.
Webster's dictionary defines hope as "to cherish a desire with anticipation: to want something to happen or be true."
Hebrews 11:1 tells us, "faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."
Hope wants something to happen. Faith knows it will happen.
We are more than conquerors through Jesus. Paul shows up what faith is when in Romans 8:38-39 he wrote: "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
When he writes, "I am sure," it comes from the Greek verb pepeismai, which comes from the root word pístis, which is Greek for faith.
Paul is saying that he has faith (assurance) that nothing he listed will be able to separate us. It is not a hoped-for or desired goal; he is confident that nothing will separate us.
Having hope is important. Having faith is more important.
Romans 10:9 tells us, "with the heart one believes" (from the root word pístis) and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved."
It is faith that saves and justifies us. Not hope.
