Interestingly I heard that in budhism, Nirvana can't be grabbed at - and I suspect it might be the same in christianity - that you can't get heaven by doing things with the only intention being to get to heaven. Sure, any good deed deserves credit, but you'd be doing it for a selfish reason if it was just to attain heaven for yourself. As a free-willed thing, heaven/god can choose itself who it goes to, and people who do stuff unconditionally (not expecting heaven) are more christ-like than someone who mimics christ for selfish purposes.

 

And I think being christ-like is just a case of being understanding, helpful, respectful, supporting, etc to other beings, with the intention to help and without expectation for anything back (that's what makes it unconditional love)

You'd have to be willing to accept the injustice of possibly going to hell yourself in exchange for helping others in life - believe so strongly in what's right that you'd be willing to rebel against the being that decides our fates if that's what it takes, that hell would be worth it if it'd mean you could change things for better.

 

You can put forward your case in life for what you believe because you can't be stopped by any dead who have yet to see what you mean. This gives you time to demonstrate why your principles are for good, and watch for how the living give you emotional feedback.

I suppose I hadn't thought of it that way. I can see your point, that it might be a way to say, "I don't have to strive to be better - God's forgiven me already," but I'd had a completely different impression. A lot of people have the impression that Christians are judgmental and think that they have a higher moral code and are therefore better, and it's saying that, actually, we're not better than anyone else - the only difference is that Christ forgave us. We could be recognized as being beneath other people for that, because they "don't need" to be forgiven, and we do - therefore, we must have done something worse.
That last line, I know, is carrying it too far the other direction, but it drives me crazy when Christians act as though they're better than nonChristians, and make them feel judged. We aren't the judges. We're the servants.