I am not a new Christian but have some questions. The Gospel as I understand it is: God wants a relationship with us and for us to enter Heaven. But we are sinful and God does not let sin enter Heaven. Luckily God provides us a way out-His son Jesus. Jesus was God in flesh who took the penalty of our sin by his death/ resurrection.
Unfortunately that's frequently how the Gospel is preached, but that's not the Gospel.
The Gospel is that God loves the world and intends to redeem and rescue it; He does this through Jesus Christ, His Son. By the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus He has destroyed the power of sin and death which holds mankind and creation captive, and delivers us to God.
The point isn't "Heaven", the point is the redemption and healing of creation, because God will one day make all things new. It's not "going to heaven when we die", it's God will raise us up from the dead on the last day. Sin and death are our fallen brokenness, by which we are captive to its tyranny; God loves us and wants to rescue us so that we might live, have life, and yes have life forever with Him. Salvation is not an escape clause, salvation is the divine rescue of the entire world. The Word became flesh, God became man; and in dying and rising God heals our human brokenness and restores us to communion with Him that we might share in His life forever in the future world when He makes all things new.
To be saved you must believe Jesus's sacrifice as the only payment for your sins; you can't save yourself.
This places the onus on us rather than on what Christ has done. To say we must do X is to say that we contribute to our salvation; instead Scripture teaches that we are saved by grace alone through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). This faith isn't believing X, Y, and/or Z; it is the gift of God (see again Ephesians 2:8) which is given to us by God through the Gospel (Romans 10:17).
We are saved not by what we think, do, say, or believe; we are saved by the gracious and kind God who condescends to meet us broken and fallen sinners in the Person of Jesus and rescue us and restore us to Himself.
Obedience will not save but obedience naturally comes after being saved. After being regenerated we obey God's commands because we have been saved.
Yes, but; we are called to walk in the good works prepared before hand for us, as we were created in Christ for good works. This isn't to contribute to our own salvation or to climb up some ladder toward personal holiness. Instead it's because we are invited to serve God by serving our neighbor. This is why no one can say "I love God" and hate their fellow man; the Great Commandment is to love the Lord our God and love our neighbor--the two cannot be separated. If we love Him because He first loved us, then we are to be present in the world loving our neighbor through good works; not that we might boast in them as though they save us, but that our neighbor might benefit and God is glorified, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Not glorify you, because you receive no glory from your good works.
Some believe you can lose your salvation. If that's the case then why did Christ endure one of the worst deaths imaginable?
Our salvation is found in Christ alone. If we abandon our salvation which is found alone in Christ, then we abandon our salvation.
Or that we can stop sinning in this life. I believe we still sin but our attitude towards sin should change and we should start to sin less.
Read Romans 7. We are simultaneously saint and sinner; saint because we are born again of God in Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit; sinner because the old man, our flesh, continues to cling to us. Which is why no one can be perfect in this life, it is why we continue to find that we do not do the things we ought to do and we do the things we ought not do--we should not lie, but yet we lie; we should not steal, but yet we steal; we should love, but we frequently do not love. Both intentionally and unintentionally we sin. Which is why we can never cling to our own efforts, strength, or will--but only to Jesus Christ and the hope we have in Him alone.
-CryptoLutheran