I understand the logic of your argument and I can appreciate how ironic it sounds.
Here's the thing: the wages of sin is death. Any sin. It doesn't have to be what we would consider a big sin or a sin with big consequences. Any sin.
With the exception of Jesus, every person born on this earth has sinned. At least once. That means we all need redeption. And I don't believe "once saved always saved." Failure to walk with God and repent when you sin as a Christian is just as perilous as never believing. (I Timothy 5:8)
It's like asking why a person with cancer has to die just because they refuse treatment. Why can't they just be good enough to live? It's not about being good enough. Salvation is not something that can be earned.
So that raises the grace/works question. This is how I answered that earlier:
"In a healthy relationship there is grace and there are works. When you have a good relationship with someone and accidentally step on his/her foot, grace covers that.
When you make a big mistake in the relationship, you break your trust or say something hurtful, you apologize, they forgive you. Relationship restored. That's grace.
But when you have failed to commit to the relationship, or prove through your actions that you are in it only for what's good for you, that's the sort of breach that grace doesn't cover. If you leave the relationship, grace doesn't cover it. Not because grace isn't big enough, but because in human relationships we understand that it takes a certain amount of investment to keep a relationship going.
Can you earn someone's love? Not really. Some people like you to believe you can. But there are no good works that really earn love. If I sent you a car tomorrow, you might really like the car, but it wouldn't mean that we had a good relationship. Why not? Because you don't even know me. If I send you a car and then ask you if I can come live with you, does the car give us the sort of relationship that would warrant my request? Of course not! :o)
Good relationships are built on time, interest, respect, mutual goals, concern, kindness, thoughtfulness, love, and give and take. You don't earn a good relationship, but you do have to work at them.
Our relationships with God are not different. Except that God has no use for a car. ;o)
We cannot impress Him with a gift that earns His love, or our salvation. Why? Because love is not about earning. Love is about relating.
Just because we love Him, that doesn't mean that He never asks anything of us or that we don't do anything for or with Him.
It's like if your husband said, "I'm sorry honey, I can't take out the trash anymore because I don't want to earn your love. In fact, I'm quitting my job and I'm just going to sit here on the sofa and if you really love me like you say you do, you'll work to provide for us, take care of the house and the kids and bring me dinner."
We all know that's not gonna fly.
In conversion, there should be a "dating period" where you are getting to know God and what He has done for you. When you decide to become a Christian and are baptized, that's your commitment. Then you have your life together. You still have to be in a good relationship with God.
If you do something to hurt Him, you ask for forgiveness, knowing that He promises to forgive. You don't have to be perfect, but you have to desire the relationship and nurture it.
If you don't feel sorry for sin, it's either because someone else is trying to convict you and you don't feel that it's wrong, or you don't understand the pain it causes God when we sin against Him.
You don't have to cry your eyes out or try to prove you are "sorry enough." But if you understand that what you've done was hurtful to God, wouldn't you want to be forgiven? In the same way you would want someone who hurt you to make their relationship right with you?
I can give you scriptures if you are interested. People go round and round on this, but this is how I understand it. Hope it helps you."
Being a good moral person without God is also a little self-righteous. It's saying you don't need God or His forgiveness, you can do it all on your own. Pride is a sin. Christians are not forgiven because they are so great, but because they realize that God is so great. He forgives them because they have the humility to admit their need and ask for His help.
None of us are perfect. It's not that Christians have a free pass to sin. But they do have a means of dealing with sin. Some people may make a mockery out of that freedom by failing to live righteously or thinking that grace means they can do what they want and God will look the other way. I don't believe that at all.
What I do believe is that no one can live perfectly enough to not need salvation. Those who are saved are not saved because they are so great, but because they realize and honor that God is so great and they thankfully take Him up on His precious gift of salvation.
He is good because He has taken it upon Himself to make salvation possible even though we don't deserve it.