To answer some of the questions you have raised, I present to you the sermon from Mars Hill:
"So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent,because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”" Acts 17:22-31
The bad news is that mankind has been corrupted by sin. We do not have the ability to make ourselves righteous, we are slaves to sin. Justice requires that all sin must be paid for, and that payment is death. God is just, the penalty for sin must be met.
The good news is that the penalty for all sin has been paid by Christ Jesus who died in our place, satisfying all claims of justice, and through him salvation is available to any who will believe it. This is a free gift of God because of his amazing love for us. God is just, but he is also good. This is the gospel, the heart of christianity, the word of reconciliation.
"namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." 1 Corinthians 5:19-21
