Sin separates us from God and there’s nothing we can do on our own to earn forgiveness for our sins and for the salvation for our soul. Even the best effort of any good person won’t ever measure up to what God requires to be deemed right in his sight. His ways are higher than ours, and His thoughts are not like ours. Out of His love and mercy to the people He created, He Himself provided the only way to be reconciled to Himself, through Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross, in Whom we can be made righteous before God.