No matter what, you will sin, and God understands that. It's where you heart is when you do sin that matters. We were born into sin, and will continue to sin for the rest of our lives.
Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
Romans 6:23b "...But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Salvation is a free gift from God. You can't earn this gift, but you must reach out and receive it.
Romans 5:8 "God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us!"
God knows we will sin, but understands that and see's the blood of Christ rather than our sin. You think you're going to be perfect and not "do something wrong"?
Romans 10:13 "Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved!"
I'm quoting verses after his death. I think your problem is accepting that its that easy. God does want us to follow Jesus and in His footsteps, He wants us to get baptised, He wants us to leave our old lives and walk in a new. He does NOT force us to do anything though. We have our free will to choose to live a life for Christ. If you truly do accept Him, your desire will be to next become baptised, then continue to build your personal relationship with Him....but it is NOT required to get into Heaven.
I'll give you an example. Someone come's to Christ on a Sunday morning...does he get baptised right then and there? No...why? It's a personal decision for that person to take that next step. If he decides to do it, but gets in a wreck and dies before he gets baptised, what happens then? He accepted Christ but didn't get baptised...you don't have an answer for that because you don't know what will happen.
Your thought process leaves room for error and doubt. It leaves room for a loophole. It's not a three step process...there's just one. God makes it easy so that NO ONE has an excuse not to follow Him.
As I mentioned, you do not need to "receive" the Holy Spirit "down the road", because as you said when you truely accept Christ, that very instant you've just received it.
I grew up believing what you did and left the church around 18. I came back after finding the truth 6 years later...What does he want from me? All Christ wants us to know is that He died for our sins. Now that our sins are paid for, we can get to the Father. Who are we to add to what Jesus said? Who are we to add more rules?
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