There’s a misconception in Christianity that teaches us that Jesus died for our sins. He didn’t.
Throughout His life, Jesus taught peace, tolerance and love. He was one of the greatest humans to ever walk on earth. In fact, I can’t think of anyone greater. He was divine. He was special. He died for us. But He didn’t die so we could sin without consequence. He also didn’t die so we could simply ask for forgiveness and go about our days sinning at will, confessing, repenting and so on, and so on, and so on…
There is a purpose to the process of confessing, repenting, forgiving, but it involves learning. When we are truly sorry for our sin, we learn something from it – something that makes us never want to act out that same sin again. Something which makes us a better person, for good. It brings us closer to God in a condition worthy of forgiveness, and so we are forgiven. And THIS is why Jesus died – to show that we, too, could overcome sin, learn and grow from our error and be worthy of forgiveness.
Jesus didn’t die on the cross to pay in advance for our sins. Jesus died on the cross to prove that, as a human being, it is possible to accept even death over sin. He showed us that we could overcome sin by placing less value on our present condition than we place on overcoming sin. This is made very clear when He was offered salvation from death while fasting in the desert. He illustrated how this life we live, these rules we live by, this grip we allow death – and the thought of death – to have on us, can be broken and death itself can be rendered powerless. Jesus’ death showed us that THIS aspect of our life is far less important than we believe. He showed us that the purpose of this life is to develop goodness, promote love, act in kindness and ultimately grow closer to God. His whole life was an example of these things.
He could have fought back, formed an army, escaped. Heck, He even knew who was going to betray Him, He could have had him killed him any number of times, but He didn’t. Instead, He proved that even death doesn’t mean a thing when we understand our true nature and purpose, that is, filled with love and constantly moving closer to God. This thing we all fear the most has such little power over us, unless we allow it to have more. The fear of leaving this world is exaggerated. Jesus proved that by coming back from death. Then He CHOSE to leave, teaching us that something much better, far beyond our perception, awaits us.