Heaven. Is. A wonderful place.

But that is not all the Christian faith is about.

Don't get me wrong: I want to live in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. But the righteousness, innocence, and blessedness are every bit as big as the life everlasting. What I mean is, I want every awful thing I've done undone. I want the malicious words unsaid and the hurt people unhurt. I want all that terribleness made right. I want a clean record. If my sins are not annihilated, I might as well be. I've got no place in any new creation if I am just a poser there. There's no point in even thinking about heaven if I'm going to be dragging a bunch of sin there with me. I have more than enough sin to ruin heaven for everyone.

Um, Anonymous?

This is the problem Jesus fixes. He dies for sin, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God. He who had no sin becomes sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

And where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation. They are inextricable. To want to go to heaven is to want to be forgiven. To be forgiven is to be a creature of the new creation. Our comfort looks back as much as it looks forward. Heaven, yes. But all that hell behind us? No. Gone. Paid for by the Lord of history. The promise of the future is in the redemption of the past. The unfixables are fixed. Those facts of your history aren't your facts any more.

You can't help going to heaven, Christian. You are forgiven.