"The wages of sin is death." That means ALL sin, from the greatest to the smallest. Every single person is guilty and unworthy and the penalty for sin must be paid as a person with sin cannot stand in the pure presence of a perfect God and live.
Since God loves us and wants a relationship with us, he resolved the problem by sending Jesus to save us from this death. He himself would pay the penalty for our sins so that we don't have to. We will be washed clean in the presence of God through Jesus, our Advocate at the throne of God.
However, God gave us free will, so we still must choose to accept this gift of Jesus by confessing our sins to him and asking for forgiveness, and that we believe in him and what he did.
If we choose not to accept, we cannot stand in the presence of a perfect holy God, not because God hates us and does not want to save us, but because he gives us the choice through Jesus to either choose to be with him or *not* to be with him.
It's up to us. We are saturated with sin in a sinful world and cannot become righteous before God on our own. We cannot do anything to work for or earn it. We must accept Jesus. That's what keeps us from hell.