The path to salvation took work. It took perfection. It took complete submission, surrender, and obedience to every law of God. That was non-negotiable. Only one being could carry that out and that was Jesus. He did it because we could not. It had to be His suffering and His death and resurrection that defeated sin and death and then finally united us to the Father to share in His glory. He restored us as humanity by working for it every moment He spent here on this earth.