Earning salvation

Is it possible to earn our salvation? In many ways, this question is redundant. If we look at salvation, it has the basic notion that someone is being saved. So, the salvation story, Jesus saving us from our sins, and eternal damnation through his death on the cross and resurrection three days later, is basically a story of a rescue.

A couple key points of a rescue:
You don't save someone if they were able to get out of the situation by themselves.
A rescue requires the cooperation of the person being saved. They must reach out their arms and trust themselves into the arms of the rescuer.

So here's how the story works. Everyone has sinned, or broken their relationship with God. This includes everyone in the world- everyone has lied, cheated, stolen, treated someone with less respect than they deserved, or any other of a host of sins I find myself falling into everyday. It is simply human to do this. However, this means we are separated from God and cannot be with him, even after we die.

Therefore, we need a hero, Jesus Christ who was and is God, who became a man so that he could take on the weight of the sins of the world and become a perfect sacrifice. He was crucified, and amazingly rose again three days later to demonstrate his victory over sin and the hope that is open to anyone who receives Jesus Christ as his savior.