If the battle against evil in any way depended on us, we would be destined for defeat. That’s why the heart of the Christian message is not about empowerment or encouragement. It’s about substitution. In the battle against our greatest enemies, we are spectators rather than participants. This week we see Jesus go head to head with our most natural religious instinct: the idea that we become right with God through our good works. Jesus taught with words and demonstrated with actions the exact opposite: that we become right with God only by his grace. That grace is the reason he loves us in spite of our sin. That grace caused him to send Jesus to make the payment we could never afford.