If Jesus had to die for my sin all over again, do you think he would?

This was a question posed to me by a student in my youth group. For the month of February, I have asked the youth at my church to submit their questions about life, theology, and all things related to God. Typically, I walk them through a book of the Bible, but I wanted to speak to their more felt needs this month. 

"What would spark this question?" I asked. The students gave me a lot of different answers. I was impressed by their intuition. "I think this person must not really believe that Jesus' first death was enough and might really be struggling to believe God loves them," one 16 year old student said. "I think you're onto something," I said. Guilt is a daily human experience and, if not dealt with, it leads us to all sorts of madness, like, hiding, pretending, or performing.  

• Guilt leads us to hide our real selves from God and others in hopes that they won't see us and then abandon us in horror.
• Guilt leads us to pretend that we are better than we are and to minimize our flaws. 
• Guilt leads us to perform, to try to compensate for our mistakes by taking on the world in our own strength. 

Guilt (that is not dealt with) also leads us to unbelief, to question God's promises, and to believe Satan's lies. Satan would have us believe that our sin is gargantuan (which it is) and that Christ's sacrifice on the cross is not quite enough for the sin and guilt we experience, and this is a lie straight from the pit of hell. 

"But wouldn't Jesus want to display his love for me again by dying on the cross just to assure and reassure me of his love?" No. I don't think so. I think we must say no biblically. When the Bible talks about Christ's sacrifice, it calls it a "once for all" sacrifice (Rom. 6:10, Heb. 7:27).  Christ died once, unlike the sacrifices of the Old Testament. There was not just one bull in the Old Testament that was sacrificed for the sins of God's people... animal after animal after animal was sacrificed as a substitute for sinful Israel all pointing forward to a full and final sacrifice that could bring permanent atonement for God's people. 

So, why would Christ not be willing to die again for my sin? The answer is more encouraging than it might first appear. 

• If Christ were willing to die again for yours or my sin, he would be admitting that his blood shed on the cross around 30 A.D. was not sufficient to save. Christ would be belittling the cross if he climbed up on it again. 
• If Christ were willing to die again for yours or my sin, he would be wasting his blood. His blood shed on Calvary in 30 A.D. was totally effective in saving all God's people from their sin; therefore, for Jesus to die again would be gratuitous violence. 
• If Christ were willing to die again for yours or my sin, he would be a liar. On the cross, some of Jesus' last words were "It is finished" (tetelestai, Jn. 19:30). If he chose to die again, he would have lied about it genuinely being finished. 

Praise the Lord that Jesus died once for all and that one death was all that it took to redeem sinners like you and me. Praise the Lord that He didn't lie and that redemption is truly "finished." Praise the Lord that Jesus shed his blood non-gratuitously; not an ounce of his blood was shed without effecting the purpose for which God intended it. Praise the Lord that Jesus died once and that we aren't in need of a second death to reassure us! We have all the assurance we could ever hope for or imagine! 

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“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38–39, ESV)