Since Christ was made to be sin for us (II Cor 5:21), why was God just in raising Him from the dead? If Jesus bore our stripes, which He did (Isa 53:5, I Pet 2:24), why could God arbitrarily forgive Jesus and not just as readily arbitrarily forgive us? This question presumes an error, since it presumes that the debt for all sin was not paid by the death of Christ. What was the debt for sin? The debt for sin was death (Rom 6:23). Since Jesus died for sin, the debt was paid. Why then since all men die do they not pay their debt for sin? Because their death is obligated to Adam’s sin (Gen 3:17). Adam’s children are already cursed to die because of his transgression. Therefore, no man can die to atone for his own sin, since his death is already obligated. However, God did not decree that one must stay dead for ever, for if He did, there could be no resurrection of the dead. He simply said that the sinner must die (Gen 3:19, Ezek 18:20, Heb 9:27). Because Jesus was the Son of God and not the son of Adam, He was not under Adam’s curse of returning to dust (Gen 3:19), and Jesus therefore had an unobligated life to give. Since He lived sinlessly (Heb 4:15), He was not under any obligation to die as the wage for His own sin. Since Jesus is Creator (Jn 1:1-3), He is worth more than His creation (Rom 9:20). Therefore, when Jesus died, His death fully paid the debt for all sins for every thing that might sin in the entire creation for ever (Col 2:14, Heb 9:12). Since death was the full penalty for sin, after Jesus died the debt was paid. The penalty for sin was not being dead for ever or burning for ever, it was death itself. Therefore, God was entirely just and justifed in raising Christ from the dead.
Why did Christ’s death suffice for sin? God is much greater than the creation, and while it is true that Jesus is Creator (Jn 1:1-3), that fact alone does not justify God in accepting the sacrifice of Christ for affronts of Christ’s creation against the Father. It appears that only a sinless, uncursed, creator, Son of God that was God’s “fellow” (Zech 13:7) would be sufficient. The fact that Christ was a Peer of God made His life of equal worth. When Christ died, it was equal dying for affronts against His equal. That was sufficient to satisfy God’s justice.
