Wanting To Pay Our Own Bills

YOUNG GUY GETS MARRIED, has a coupla kids, tries as hard as he can to support all that, works hard, comes up short, way short. He feels desperate, so he robs a bank. Spends ten to fifteen in the pen. Meanwhile, his ex wife and family marry a rich guy, and begin a new life. The kids turn out well. When the bank robber is paroled his former family are like strangers. You think he hasn't paid for his crime, hasn't paid enough? He has? OK, fine. Then why does Christ have to die on the cross to atone for the sins of the bank robber? What goes around, comes around. We all agree on that. You reap whatever you sow, says the Bible, as well as common sense. And that all seems to happen right here, in this world, in this life. Christian crucifixion theology seems redundant, like double jeopardy. Many if not most human beings end their lives having, on balance, done much more good than harm in the world. For that, they generally are quite acceptable, most likely, to God. Or so it would seem. This is true, even with all the misery and "evil" in the world. Most, if not nearly all people, are basically "good". And we all seem to believe, because we all see, our actions and their consequences. So why stage a symbolic, gruesome event on a wooden cross? Besides, is that what we really want - for somebody else to take the rap for us, to die for our sins? Don't we, down deep, as honorable beings, want to experience and accept the consequences of our own actions? don't we want to stand up like brave beings, and take what's coming to us, without someone else doing it on our behalf? Down deep, we want to pay our own bills, and we do.