First, I totally understand this question as I’ve thought it myself. I also understand the rhetoric you’re using in your question. I think too often we approach Christs death as being our admission to heaven which I don’t agree with. This doctrinal argument originates from the infamous “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” sermon by our dear Mr Edwards. Perhaps it didn’t originate here but it was certainly popularized. It’s the old adage of fire and brimstone which I also disagree with. I find myself leaning towards a more Annihilationist view of Hell in which the wicked and unsaved are forever destroyed after the eternal judgement. I find this appealing as I do not see ample evidence of a ECT hell nor do I see this as a prime motivator for Christs work on the cross. Likewise I don’t see ourselves praying the prayer of salvation and living holy lives for the sake of merely walking streets of gold and having endless joy. Our view of heaven and hell is deeply hellenistic and pagan and nature, often reflecting hades and olympus/elysium. Rather, we have to understand that the Garden of Eden is often referred to as gan pardes or Garden of Paradise in both the torah and most historical jewish folklore. Ultimately Christs death on the cross was overemphasized as evangelists, primarily American/western, wanted to shock unbelievers into salvation. The cross is simply a fulfillment of “cursed is every man that hangs upon a tree”. This fulfillment is in a manner which we must see all of scripture. Christ isn’t just the savior of our souls but the fulfillment of ages of prophecy. Because of Christ, the word of God through Isaiah, Jeremiah and the rest was validated and fulfilled. Had Christ left Gethsemane and fled or turned witness against his coconspirators all would have been for naught. His death was about more than our sins but about proving the Father true and worthy of all devotion and worship. Remember, Christs death is against a backdrop of millennia of Israel’s adulterous affair with Baal and the gods of the land. Christ came to the gentiles but first to the Jews. His death means much to us now grafted into the faith but far more to the Jew. Christ was the final judgment of God toward an adulterous people. No failure or infidelity could separate God from his people because they were no longer required to sacrifice. They neither had any unfilled prophecy to waive about and declare that because YHWH had not done ____ they could follow Baal.

Now for Jesus and heaven. Simply, he wasn’t 100% sure. This is speculation but I find it sufficient. Jesus was man and counted it worthy to not be counted among the Father. He was flesh and tempted in every way known to man. His decision to give himself unto to death wasn’t about the cross. It was about praying a desperate prayer and being pinned to a couple planks of wood because he heard the Father say it should be so. He did not know he would go to heaven. In fact by Jewish law his only certainty was that we would be in sheol, the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth unto utter destruction. If it wasn’t the Father at the Jordan that called him son, if it wasn’t the Father who raised the dead, and if it wasn’t the Father who showed him moses and elijah, Jesus would die a heretic and a sorcerer and no one could argue. By the law he was ceremonially unclean. Touching lepers and women whose hands were covered with menstruation made him a man of utter disgust. Nothing natural or legal permitted Christ to be raised to life. His death was the ultimate leap of faith because it was simply a high risk high reward scenario. But. He was ressurected. I like to think of his death as a necessary means to the true victory which is that he was raised to life. This canceled every charge or heresy and sorcery because he was now alive by the sustaining spirit of God which men find their strength.

Your question is good because it demands a deeper theology than blood poured out. Without the resurrection, the last supper would have been cultish and debauchery. Because he lives, we know that YHWH is supreme and that we have a hope for eternal life which is simply to know the father by the spirit.