Be good and go to heaven, be bad and go to hell.
I just saw this within your quoted response, but I had to respond to it.
This one sentence is completely misunderstood as the message of the Bible. This is not the message of the Bible. The message of the Bible is that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and that we cannot make it to heaven by our own actions. Every single one of us has sinned. I was in open rebellion against God, and had made up my own "god" who somehow approved of the sins I preferred. I know that I have sinned, more times than I can count. I was completely incapable of saving myself. God knew that. That is why Jesus (who is God) had to come to earth in the form of a man, to live a perfect life, and to become a perfect sacrifice and die for our sins.
If the criteria for heaven was "being good", and the judging criteria were the 10 Commandments, then not one of us could make it to heaven. God knows this, and that is why He sent Jesus to earth to die for us, and to redeem us. None of us can go to heaven without Jesus Christ. Jesus offers forgiveness through His death, but we have to accept this gift. We have to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and repent (decide to turn away from) our sins. That is the "cost", but it really isn't a cost. The cost of our sin is death. The gift of Jesus Christ is life. We just have to choose that gift.
