Do you have peace now and are you assured about your afterlife?
Do you experience peace and joy in your life, no matter what the circumstances? Do you have assurance that if you were to die today in a car accident or by a heart attack that you would go to heaven?

If you cannot answer an emphatic "yes" to these questions, then you are either (1) unsure about what Jesus has already done for you and need to grow; or (2) you are not a Christian. As for the first possibility, you need to realize that you cannot work your way into heaven. One of the biggest problems that infect all branches of Christianity to various degrees — Protestant, Catholic, Evangelical, and Orthodox — is that we need to do things to get into heaven. Nothing could be further from the truth. All you have to do is to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and follow his commandments, which are both very hard and ridiculously easy. Faith and love are the central essence of the commandments of Jesus. As for the second possibility, you need to become a Christian. It's a matter of life and death.

So what does the Bible say about doing things to try to work yourself into heaven?

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved — and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.Ephesians 2:4–10

Get it? We are not saved by our own good works. Period. We are, however, saved for good works — in other words, one of the reasons that God has saved us is so that we can perform acts of grace and mercy towards others. Don't get the cart before the horse — it is our unmerited salvation given to us by Jesus Christ which motivates and helps to do good works. Why? Because when you are saved by Jesus, you are a changed person. If you become a Christian and your heart does not begin to change, then you need to re-evaluate why you're not following God's will for your life.

Why we need Jesus
Evil, pain, and suffering were not in God's original plan for creation. But according to the Bible, something went very wrong when human history began. Sin entered the human race when the first people, Adam and Eve, succumbed to Satan's temptation and decided that they, not God, knew what was best for their lives. What Satan offered them sounded like a good thing, but he didn't tell them the whole story. Adam and Eve were free to choose between God and Satan and they chose wrongly. Because of sin, humans threw away their relationship with God and, as a consequence, pain and suffering entered the world. We literally tossed in our lot with the devil.

Even though our ancestors rejected God, he had another plan to free us from our bondage. People can never be reconciled to God by doing good works because of our inherited our sin nature, but God told the prophets that a Messiah would come who would take our sins and our punishments upon himself. The Messiah would clothe himself in humanity, live as a human, suffer as a human, but would not sin as a human. Though completely innocent and free from sin, the Messiah allowed himself to be tortured and killed in our place. That Messiah is Jesus Christ. He defeated sin and death and, when we trust in him, he gives us salvation as a gift.

So what do we need to do to accept God's gift of Jesus Christ?

Believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior
All you have to do is to believe in Christ Savior and accept him as your Lord and Savior. Then you need to make public your acceptance of Jesus. It's that simple. You will give up things as you grow in Christ — God will help you give up your sins and you may have to give up some of your dreams and aspirations (for example, seeking riches and pleasure at the expense of other people) — but you will get back so much, much more.

And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Acts 16:29–31

because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Romans 10:9-10

Pray a prayer similar to this one
Dear Heavenly Father, I am praying this prayer because I believe that you love me, and I want to ask You to come to me as I come to You. Please help me now as I make this decision that will change how I spend the rest of my life and all of eternity.

I thank You for sending your Son Jesus to earth to live as an example for me and to die for me on the Cross. I thank you for the gift of forgiveness of sin that He fully accomplished on the Cross, and that You offer me now, and I pray that I may have that forgiveness. I recognize that the gift of forgiveness of sin is just that — a gift — and that there is nothing that I can do to earn it.

Heavenly Father, I pray for you to forgive me and cleanse my life in Your sight through the blood of Jesus Christ. I am sorry for anything and everything I have ever done that is displeasing to You. Please take away all of my guilt and shame as I accept the fact that Jesus died to pay for all my sins, and that through Him I now have forgiveness on this earth and eternal life in heaven.

Lord Jesus, I ask you to please come into my life now. Because You rose from the dead, I know that You are alive and I want You to live within me – now and forever.

I am turning my entire life over to You and am turning from my way to Your way. I invite Your Holy Spirit to fill me and lead me forward in a life that will please the heavenly Father.

Thank You, Lord, for hearing me. From this day forward, I commit myself to Jesus Christ the Son of God. In His name I pray, amen.

Now you're a Christian
If you have prayed this prayer or one similar to it — it can be very short and not as long as the one I gave — then you are now a Christian. If you have prayed this prayer and you are already a Christian, you haven't been saved again but have merely re-confirmed your faith in God. Your life on earth will be changed and you will go to heaven to be with God when you die. Your life may change in ways that you may not want it to — God will work hard in your life to help you give up your sins or call you to live a life of giving instead of a life of taking. That's okay — you will have peace and joy that you would never otherwise have had and you will have the satisfaction of living within God's will.

God gave birds wings because it is in their nature to fly. Once you become a Christian, you will begin to take upon the nature of Christ and will live as he lives. An eagle who cannot fly would be a very unhappy eagle indeed; similarly, a person who is living outside of God's will be very unhappy because our new nature through Christ gives us peace and joy when we follow Christ and makes us miserable when you don't.

The follow-up
First, when you become a Christian, hook yourself up with a good, Bible-believing church. It could be Catholic, it could be Baptist, or it could be non-denominational. If that church teaches that good works lead to salvation and not the other way around, then leave it.

Second, make reading the Bible a daily habit. Start with the Gospel of John and progress from there.

Third, if you become a Christian through reading this web page, let me know and I will help to get you hooked up to a good church in your area. I will also recommend books (see my Recommended Readings section) that can help you prosper as a Christian.