Psalm 25:7 contains perhaps a great summation of the God’s redemptive action:
“Gracious and righteous is the Lord : therefore will he teach sinners in the way.”
It describes God as both gracious and righteous and man as sinners. God is righteous – he is good and pure beyond a way we can understand. We get a sense of it when we naturally view various situations as “unfair” – from the trivial (“something minor went wrong in my life”) to the monstrous (rape, murder). Pure good exists and he is that good. We are sinners – we cause and enable the bad. From here we cannot approach God. It is more than a matter of good mixing with bad. It is perhaps so much as his goodness literally would destroy our badness. We would be destroyed in his presence.
Yet God is gracious – he desires to help us. From here the narrow and clear path (“believe on Christ”) becomes deeper. How does it all work? Why did it have to be this way. These can’t be easily addressed and for many never should be. It is common for the thinking man to think he is “too smart” for Christianity. What he really means is he is “too smart” for the average take. The person who simply believes. That is fine – but leave the simple believer along (the mass of people).
Back to the gracious – he provided a way for us to approach him. Rebirth in Christ. Hundreds of years of though can go into the how and why. For now understand the general outline:
God is good.
God wants to redeem you.