Theoretically, there are two ways to be in a right relationship with God in this life and on into heaven. One is to never sin. As long as you live a perfect life by always obeying every command of God you are in good shape. You will have deserved it all. By the way, good luck with all that!
The other way we can be in a salvation relationship with God is what I appropriately call the realistic way. The realistic way states the truth that we all sin and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). And the consequences of our sins is spiritual death (Romans 6:23). But thanks be to God that because of Jesus, the Lord of heaven and earth, we can be forgiven when we put our faith in Him to save us, die to the old way of living, and the old person is buried with Christ and raised up to a new life (Romans 6:1-11). Romans 6:23 says it all: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”. Ahhhh, the free gift!
The love of Jesus is deeper than the oceans and higher than the heavens – more than we can even ever comprehend. He is Lord of lords and King of kings. There is no other Savior who can save us (Acts 4:12). He is the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Jesus (John 14:6).
It is extra amazing that although we do not deserve the love of Jesus, He sacrifices Himself on the cruel cross of Calvary because He loves us – the unlovable. We stand in wonder of His sacrifice. His mercy is so massive. We should never ever move from the cross in our thoughts. If the cross of Christ is on our mind we are on track from here to heaven. The song below says it well.
Read Romans 6:1-23. Then listen to Jesus, Lord of Heaven by Kutless.
Romans 6
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? Far from it! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for the one who has died is freed from sin.
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all time; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. So you too, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Therefore sin is not to reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the parts of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and your body’s parts as instruments of righteousness for God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under the Law but under grace.
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under the Law but under grace? Far from it! Do you not know that the one to whom you present yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of that same one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and after being freed from sin, you became slaves to righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented the parts of your body as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your body’s parts as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in relation to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.