If you don’t know Christ as your Lord and Savior, the unfortunate answer to the question above is no. Not because God doesn’t love you, He does. Not because you are any worse than other people that will get to heaven, you’re not. It’s because you have simply not allowed Him to open the door to heaven for you!

The first truth to understand about this topic is that God loves you and wants you to be with Him in heaven. The Bible tells us very clearly that He does not desire even a single person to be left out.

2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

What prevents us from being in heaven with God is simple. We are sinners. Before you start to complain, understand that sin is simply falling short of God’s holiness. It does not mean you have been a horrible person. Sin can be as simple as lying, cheating or being angry. The standard is set very high. We can even be sinful in our thoughts!

Matthew 5:28
But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Not many men can stand before another and honestly say that they have never had an impure thought about a woman that was not their wife. In fact, the Bible tells us very clearly that every one of us has sinned!

Romans 3:23
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

The reason that sin keeps us from heaven is that we have a holy God. You can think of holiness as an absence of sin. Quite simply, He is perfect.

1 John 1:5
This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.

Because He is holy, God abhors sin and cannot allow it to dwell with Him. God is also just. He has created a penalty for sin, which is death, and that penalty must be applied without exception.

Romans 6:23a
For the wages of sin is death

This obviously leaves us with a giant problem. How do we bridge the gap between ourselves and God so that we can be reconciled with Him and granted access to heaven? For starters, it should be noted that there is no way to remove the sin from you, you cannot work hard enough, do enough good or attend church enough to make up for it. It will always be there. You can no more remove the sin from your life than a leopard can turn into an elephant.

God knows this and that is why He provided a way to pay your penalty.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

He sent His Son Jesus to die on a cross so that the penalty for all of our sins might be paid in full.

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

This simple but incredible act was done on your behalf so that you could, through Christ, be reconciled with God and have eternal life.

John 3:36
He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

All you need to do is pray for Him to forgive your sins, acknowledging Christ as your Lord and Savior. If you have never done this, please take a moment to pray the prayer below. If you do, you will be forgiven and become one of God’s own. You will have joined His team and will be ready for the next step in your journey.

Prayer of Salvation
God, I know that I am a sinner and my sins have separated me from you. I am sorry and want to turn away from my sins and toward you. I believe that your Son Jesus died for my sins, was raised from the dead and now hears my prayer. I invite Him to become my Lord and Savior, to rule in my heart from this day forward. In the name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.

If you have prayed this prayer, congratulations! You are now my brother in Christ and your family extends around the globe. Many new brothers await the opportunity to meet you and welcome you to the family. I would encourage you to join our community and introduce yourself, telling the men there that you have taken your first step. Also, don't forget that this is only the first of three steps in your life as a Christian man! Visit our page on Step 2 and keep your walk in Christ strong!