One Part I Dislike About The Atonement

I'm not 100% sure how The Atonement works, but I'm pretty sure I wish it worked differently. I understand that, when someone sins, there has to be some sort of justice, usually taking the form of some sort of punishment. I also understand that Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sins, with the understanding that we won't have to face the penalties for our sins if we meet Jesus' condition: repentance. However, the part of this program that I don't like is what happens if we don't repent.

If we don't repent, we have to suffer the consequences of our sins. That part's fine. That's justice. I have no problem with that. The part I have a problem with is that, even if we don't repent of a particular sin, Christ still also paid the penalty for that sin anyway. This means that we cannot choose to spare Christ some pain by choosing to accept the penalty for our own sins. Christ's suffering was entirely unjust, and there's little, if anything, we can do to make it right. Sure, we can suffer for our own sins if we want to, but that only means that Jesus suffered in vain.

However, I think I understand why the plan was arranged that way. Jesus doesn't want us to suffer, and He knew that many of us wouldn't want Him to suffer, so He (or God) made sure that we wouldn't have the opportunity to spare Christ by taking our own sins upon ourselves. Instead, the only way we have to reduce (or prevent some of) Jesus' suffering is to not sin in the first place. The only way we can reduce the amount of suffering Christ had to face on our account is to reduce the number of sins He would have to have paid for. We can't reduce His burden through non-repentance, but we can reduce it through righteousness.

Like I said, I wish it worked differently. I appreciate that Jesus made a heroic sacrifice for me, but a part of me wishes that I could make a heroic (and just) self-sacrifice for Him. Unfortunately, the price of our sins has already been paid, and the only way we can "reduce" that penalty is by trying not to add to it. As for our past sins, there's nothing we can do about that now except to thank our Savior and try not to squander His gift. We cannot spare Him by not repenting, but if we do repent, He can spare us. That's His plan. And, unfortunately for those who'd rather not let an innocent man suffer for our misdeeds, I don't see any way around it.