Double jeopardy is a legal concept that protects a person from being prosecuted more than once for the same offense.

This came into play in the case of a man who confessed to a Wisconsin judge that 2 years earlier in the same court he had been charged with murder and was found innocent. "But I was guilty," he admitted. The judge quickly conferred with the district attorney to see if the man could be brought to trial for murder. They discovered, however, that because of the principle of double jeopardy the man could not be tried again for that crime. Although he was a murderer, he could not be punished for it.

According to God's justice, we who are "in Christ" were as guilty as that man before we were converted, but now we are just as unpunishable. Why? Not because of a legal technicality. Rather, it's because any and every sin we've ever committed or will commit has been fully prosecuted in Christ on the cross. And once is all that the law demands. There are still consequences when we do wrong, even as believers. But as far as the penalty of the law is concerned, Jesus' death places us in a wonderful position of being exempt from eternal punishment. Thank God for His principle of "double jeopardy"!   — Mart De Haan