“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”. Salvation is a one step process: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved”. (John 3:16)
There are no prerequisites for salvation (Baptism, Confession to a Priest, Exemplary Good Works etc.): simply believe. Baptism does not save you but is an outward demonstration of salvation. Confession to a Priest is unnecessary because “there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5), as for acting like Jesus, that is not a prerequisite for salvation because it’s a RESULT of Salvation.
When a person accepts Jesus as their Saviour, they have God the Holy Spirit dwelling within them. He shines a light on their life daily and they are convicted about their behaviour and things in their world that are not in line with Himself. Through reading the Word of God and prayer however, the person learns to deal with this conviction and strives to make changes. This is the difficult part of being a Christian; wrestling daily with the lusts and lifestyle of your former self.
Nobody is perfect. The Bible says that: “We have all sinned and come short of the Glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and: “There is none righteous, no not one” (Romans 3:10). If you’ve ever been to Church, you would have most likely heard of the apostle Paul. Paul was a great man of God and even he said: “I am carnal” (Romans 7:14), straight up owning the fact that while he was saved, his righteous soul still inhabited his fallen sinful body.
Your entire behaviour doesn’t instantly change in that moment you come to God for forgiveness of your sins. You are not magically made without sin after salvation and you’re certainly not better than everyone else (which sadly is what a lot of unsaved people believe Christians think). You are destined for heaven after salvation, but your body is still the same, so you must work towards a more God focussed life. This is when your lifestyle begins to change, and you will desire to change because you will have the Holy Spirit (and the Word of God) to guide you in these changes and empower you to make the changes possible.
If you have believed that Jesus Christ is Lord of all and that He died on the cross to pay for your sins and the sins of the world, you will not be going to Hell anymore. This also needs to be addressed; that is, the world doesn’t understand God, no matter what movies, music or TV shows say about the Bible. Do not think for one moment you must make a whole bunch of life changes in order for God to THEN save you. That would mean that you did something in order to get in to heaven. That would be a works based salvation, and that idea is unbiblical. Remember, the world of men and women who do not have the Holy Spirit do not understand salvation because they don’t know God.
Let it be known that Faith is not a work, it is “salvation by grace through faith, NOT by works lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:9). God will take you just as you are. Romans 6:23 says: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”. Our WAGES, or what have earned for our iniquity, is Hell, but the GIFT of God (that word Gift of course meaning the free offer that God has extended to all mankind) is an eternity in heaven.
All you have to do is accept His gift.