Walk Through the Gates

President Uchtdorf went on to say that the grace of God opened up the gates of heaven, that through His grace, we could be forgiven of our sins, but that even having an open portal to heaven wouldn't be enough to actually get us to heaven. We still have to walk through the gate. It's not enough to be saved by Christ's Atonement; we must also be changed by His teachings. It's not enough to just trust in His grace; we must also keep His commandments.

As President Uchtdorf said:

If salvation means only erasing our mistakes and sins, then salvation—as wonderful as it is—does not fulfill the Father’s aspirations for us. His aim is much higher: He wants His sons and daughters to become like Him.

That's going to take a little effort on our part. We have to be willing to change our attitude and behavior, and we have to take steps to begin to change. We can't become perfect by our works alone, but we won't become perfect unless we put in some effort.

In the end, we need both grace and works. Through grace, God has opened the gates of heaven up to us, but it'll still take a little bit of work on our part to go through them.