If obeying God's Word was a 'requirement', nobody would pass the mustard... (or whatever that expression should be...)

It actually works like this...

You see yourself for what you are - a non-perfect human being. Someone who makes mistakes, does selfish things from time to time, etc etc. Even if you are practically a 'saint', you realize you could never truely be 'perfect'.

You then see God for what He is. Perfect in everyway.

No matter how hard you try, you can never be 'perfect enough' to earn your way to be with Him.

If you take a gallon of pure water and add the smallest drop of contaminated water to it, you no longer have pure water. Or if you have something that is perfectly light, and add a tiny bit of darkeness, that light is no longer perfect. The point is, our imperfection and God's perfection are simply incompatible.

God solved that problem through Jesus Christ. A perfect sacrifice. He sits at the right hand of God (so to speak) and when God judges our imperfect selves, Jesus steps in for us and says "he is one of mine, I paid the price for his sins".

If you accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, you have the 'way' to bridge that gap between the perfect God and the imperfect person.

It is a natural following of making this free choice to accept Him as your Saviour, that you show your love and appreciation for what He did for you (being crucified on the cross as the ultimate and perfect act of self sacrifice) by trying to follow His teachings...

I'm sure you are pounding your head against a wall about now or maybe just laughing or even a little freaked out

But I just wanted to clarify what you said a little (or maybe just confuse you more...).