Those blessed men who wake up to the reality of the life-and-death spiritual battle and desire to avoid being one of the Damned and to be given Sainthood, must ultimately turn to the only source of salvation, Jesus Christ the Savior of Man, and formally choose to give himself completely to Jesus and His Holy Catholic Church.
Every man is in a spiritual battle
Beginning with the attack of Satan in Eden (CCC 405), every man lives his entire life on a spiritual battlefield on which he suffers from the constant attacks of Satan (CCC 409). In this spiritual battle, a man must fight against his own sinful desires and the constant temptations of Satan which seek to entice a man to fall into sin (CCC 979, 2516, 2846). To fight against deadly sin, a man must be willing to take up the daily spiritual battle against evil (CCC 162, 405, 978) and strive to draw ever closer to Jesus Christ the Savior of Man (CCC 921).
Every man must choose to be with Jesus or against Him
Jesus makes it clear that there are two sides in the great spiritual battle, those who are with Jesus and His Church Militant and those who oppose Jesus (Mt 12:30); there is no middle ground for a man cannot serve God and Satan/the world (Mt 6:24, Lk 16:13, CCC 2729).
To follow Jesus, a man must sacrifice himself
Jesus confirms the spiritual battle is one of life and death, and that a man must pick up his cross (CCC 2015) and sacrifice himself for Jesus to receive life (Mt 10:39, 16:25-26).
A man must freely accept that only Jesus can save him
After accepting that Jesus has the power to save, the prudent man realizes it is highly unlikely, if not impossible, that he can save himself given his propensity to sin, Satan’s constant attacks, and the extraordinary perfection required to achieve Sainthood; indeed, the Church confirms it is in fact a mortal sin of presumption for a man to wrongly think he can save himself (CCC 2092).
A man must freely choose to accept salvation from Jesus Christ
Every man has been given free will by God (CCC 1730-1748) to accept Jesus Christ or not, for Jesus does not force any man to believe in Him (Mt 22:1-14).
If a man, fully aware of who Jesus is, deliberately chooses at the time of his death to continue to refuse to have faith in Jesus Christ, he is condemned (Mk 16:16, Jn 3:18, 36, CCC 679, 846).
To receive salvation from Jesus Christ, a man must deliberately choose to have faith in Jesus (Jn 5:24, 14:6, Acts 4:12, CCC 977).
A man must formally accept Jesus as his Savior
Just as a man cannot save himself, he cannot rely on a do-it-yourself religion and is prone to fall into all kinds of errors, often with Satan, the father of lies (Jn 8:44), working behind the scenes to encourage a man to follow a false faith. The only sure way for a man to draw close to Jesus Christ is to be received into His Holy Catholic Church, the only sure way to follow Jesus for “outside the Church there is no salvation” (CCC 846).
A non-Christian must be Baptized and Confirmed
A man who has faith in Jesus Christ and desires to receive salvation in Christ, must repent from sin (Lk 13:3-5, Acts 17:30-31) and formally accept Jesus by receiving the Sacrament of Baptism (CCC 1257-1261) and the Sacrament of Confirmation (CCC 1306) in His Holy Catholic Church and begin to ardently practice the Catholic faith.
A Catholic man who has been Confirmed must return to Jesus
Many Catholic men who have received the Sacrament of Confirmation have turned away from Jesus and fallen into deep sin and must return to Him to receive His salvation (similar for members of the Orthodox Church; CCC 838, 1399). A Catholic man in this situation should take the following actions:
Receive the Sacrament of Penance
Jesus welcomes back every sinner with great joy, regardless of the severity or number of his sins. A man should perform a rigorous Examination of Conscience, have deep contrition, confess his sins in the Sacrament of Penance, and be forgiven and reconciled with Christ.
Commit to zealously practice the Catholic faith
After being forgiven of sin and reconciled with God in the Sacrament of Penance, it is critical for a man to not fall back into his former life. A man who has returned to Christ should zealously dedicate the rest of his life to drawing ever closer to Jesus and grow in holiness each day through His Holy Catholic Church.
Other types of Christians must return to Jesus
While different types of non-Catholic/Orthodox Christianities have various views about the forgiveness of sin and what a man who falls away from Jesus must do to return to Him, every non-Catholic Christian is invited to deeply consider the truth of Christ’s Holy Catholic Church, discern converting to Catholicism, and pray for God to make His will known to them.