There has to be another way to heaven.  Why can't you just live a good life or believe in God and go to heaven?  

To have a relationship with God on earth and to live with him forever in heaven when you die, you must be made perfect in God's eyes.  You, being imperfect, cannot make yourself perfect.  Only God, who is perfect, can wash away your imperfections, forgive you of your sins and grant you eternal life.  Salvation is a free gift but you must accept it.    

Some people wonder how a loving God can send someone to hell.  God does not send anyone to hell.  You will send yourself there by rejecting and refusing to receive the gift he offers you.   

Jesus said,  "As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge them.  I did not come to judge the world but to save it.  There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words.  That very word which I spoke will condemn them at the last day."   John 12:47-48 

Some ask why can't God just forgive you and accept you the way you are?  How can a holy, righteous God allow a sinful individual into his presence?  He cannot.  God desires for all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth, but there is no way God can allow a sinful individual into heaven.  

God is holy and his perfection would destroy any sinful person who came into his presence.

Most people understand that God is a God of love but it ends there.  They do not realize God never changes and his characteristics can never be altered or compromised.  God is love but he is also just.  

God's Word is clear:  The wages of sin is death. This means you are separated from God in this life and also in the next life after you die.  No matter how much God loves you, he must sentence you to death because you are guilty of breaking his commandments.    

God cannot use his love to violate his justness.  He must always be both just and loving.  According to his justness, you are guilty.  But according to his love, Jesus stepped out of eternity and came into the world to die for your sins.  Jesus not only allowed himself to be crucified so you could be forgiven of your sins but also for God's just requirement to be satisfied.  Before Christ, God always demanded an unblemished animal sacrifice for the remission of sins.  After Christ, there is no longer a need for those sacrifices because he became the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.    

God loves you so much he gave you free will.  

You are free to act in any way you want.  God could have made you a robot who did everything he wanted you to do, but forced love is no love at all.  God gave you free will so when you accept him, you do so of your own choosing.  When given the opportunity to act freely, people choose to follow their own desires and not the ways of God.  

The one who forgives another is always the one who bears the pain for the wrong which was committed against them.  This is exactly what God has done.  He has not only forgiven us but he was also willing to pay the price himself for that forgiveness as demonstrated by Jesus' death on the cross.  There are many ways to Jesus, but there is only one way to God and that is through his one and only Son.    

How do you get to heaven?