I personally have come to believe all systems of belief have one thing in common. Some how, some way, man is going to "earn" his way into whatever his personal version is of heaven, nirvana, utopia ... All except one, that is. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of our Heavenly Father.

And that right there ^^^ is the key.

I watched my best friend/partner come to this realization whilewe were living in the midst of an utterly different "belief system," when he started exploring the different teachings and history of religion and his brain power calculated the gaping inconsistencies in other "religions." Then he studied the fundamental basis of the gospels and could not pick it apart. From there it was simply a matter of admitting first to himself and then to God that he believes that there was very real power at work in the resurrection, and that he will privately and publicly recognize Jesus as the son of God. It wasn't anything he did or didn't do, no effort on his part, no striving for a perfection he knows he can never attain. The "work" is all supernatural, nothing we can achieve or should attempt to achieve. We aren't qualified to "perform" our way into Grace. It's just a rough, rugged, gritty, and sometimes messy conviction that only ONE person is qualified to represent us before God, and then a simple admission of helplessness to contribute to that arrangement in any way, but revert to a childlike trust in a hero who will do exactly what he says he will do, every time.