This picture seems bleak and without hope, but it isn't. We can't do anything to reach God, but God has made a way for us to know Him.

Christ paid the penalty of sin through His death and resurrection.
God sent his one and only son to earth to die for our sins, so that we wouldn't have to.

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

"For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit." (1 Peter 3:18)

Can't I just try to be a good person? Isn't that enough to know God?
Well, that isn't possible. Trying to be good doesn't make anyone sinless. Good deeds don't save anyone from the penalty of sin. Jesus is the only bridge we can take to God.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)

"He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit." (Titus 3:5)

Now that I know what Christ did for me, what can I do?