3 Nephi - Chapter 15

 Paul called the Law of Moses a school master.

Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.  (Galatians 3:24)

It think part of the schooling provided by the Law was the utter impossibility of keeping it fully, correctly, entirely.  Challenging ourselves against it we quickly discover that it can't be kept perfectly.  It is then that we discover that we need a Savior, one who could fulfill the entire Law without error who could then open the way for us, who couldn't.

The Children of Israel were kidding themselves if they thought they could keep the Law that fully.  Apparently, the Pharisees had codified the law into a list of dos and don'ts that not only told them what they must do, but also informed them as to what they could get away with.  They seem to have discovered that the Law as Moses gave it, from God, could not be adequately kept, and so, needed some adaptation so it could.

Jesus, in fulfilling the law, took care of that quandary.  Still, today, there are those among us who feel they can keep the rules and tend toward defining them in legalese so they can.  Rules like watching TV on Sunday, except for during Conference and perhaps a political debate, but never football, unless you have a son on the team and shame on Steve Young for playing on Sunday unless he's had a special dispensation from the prophet which might mean the prophet watches on Sunday and in that case, if football is okay, maybe Maverick is too since it's far less violent, and of course Mormon produced movies should be okay except violent ones like The Book of Mormon Movie...  Well, you get my drift.

I think Jesus wanted all that nonsense done away.  Now, if we are willing, we can consult the Lord directly as to what He would have us do and not do.  Now, if we are willing, we can enter into a covenant with Him by which we are saved by His merits rather than our own.  Why?  Because of our weakness and His majestic perfection, He has become and is the Way, the only way by which Salvation may be obtained.  Willingness, emerges from love which we are given because He loved us first.

This doesn't excuse us from living righteously in any way.  It just makes living righteously a real possibility, by allowing us to enter into a covenant arrangement by which our best efforts, though imperfect, are good enough.