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How can God justly put man's sin upon an innocent victim?

How can God justly put man’s sin upon an innocent victim?

There are only two ways in which God can justly put a man’s sin upon an innocent victim. First, God may do such when the victim has no moral value. This was the case under the Old Covenant when God commanded animal sacrifices be offered for the sins of His people. One such sacrifice was made each year upon the day of atonement when the High Priest of God would go into the tabernacle into the most holy place and offer blood for the sins of the people. Leviticus 16:15, 16 states:

Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the vail, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat: And he shall make an atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins: and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation, that remaineth among them in the midst of their uncleanness.

Animals have no intrinsic moral value and so it is not sinful to kill them as it would be a man. Hence, if something has no intrinsic moral value, it wouldn’t be unjust for God to put sin upon such a victim, even though such a victim is innocent.

There is, however, a second way in which God may justly put man’s sin upon an innocent victim. This is when God Himself bears the punishment for man’s sin. Everyone recognizes the principle that it would be just for the one sentencing punishment to bear the penalty for that punishment in place of the one who ought to be punished.

Fiorello LaGuardia was the mayor of New York city during the depression and all of the second world war. One night he ended up at a night court in the city’s poorest ward. He intended to hear the cases for the night. His first case was of an old woman who had stolen bread to feed her family. The merchant refused to drop charges due to the fact that the neighborhood was criminally minded. The mayor stated that the law made no exceptions and the the woman owed $10 (which was a lot of money in those days) or 10 days in jail. But as the judge was speaking, he took out his wallet and pulled out a $10 dollar bill. The judge paid the debt himself, a wholly satisfactorily and honorable way to satisfy justice.

So too, God, through His Son, paid for the sins of mankind by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. It would have been unjust to force someone else to pay for these sins, but since God Himself was the one who paid for the sins, it satisfied the cause of justice. Hebrews 10:12 states, “But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God.” Peter declared that it was the blood of Christ that redeemed us from sin and death (1 Peter 1:18, 19). And in 1 Peter 3:18 he states, “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit”. With this arrangement for the payment of sins, God can be what Paul declares Him to be in Romans 3:25, 26, namely, both just and the justifier. “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” God is just because the penalty for sin was justly paid. God is also the justifier, because He Himself paid the penalty for our sins.

The first way of paying for sins by the innocent is obviously an inferior way because while the victim has no moral value, at the same time, the lack of moral value can’t really fully pay for man’s sins. The second way, on the other hand, the victim has the most moral value that He could have. He is both innocent of sin Himself, and freely willing to pay for the sins of man. How much better then, is the sacrifice of Jesus to pay for the sins of man, once, and for all times?