Hi FearItself -
You wrote:
First, Jesus’ payment for my sin is not necessarily quid pro quo. It is, however, an acceptable sacrifice. The difference is that God was not demanding payment for the sake of payment, but a payment aimed at accomplishing something in particular. In other words - the sins of the Christian are not paid for simply so that God can say they are. There is something that the sacrifice itself accomplishes that makes it worthwhile above and beyond mere payment for sin.
The idea of Christ coming to earth to be a man and die for people’s sins wasn’t originated because God was by golly going to get payment. It happened because God wanted to provide a sacrifice - acceptable to Himself - that would atone for the sins of the people. Something, in other words, that would make them not only innocent but righteous in His sight.
I hope I have not talked in circles too much just then. Hang with me.
There is a lot of theology out there about what Christ’s work on the cross actually accomplished. Without going into the entirety and possibly boring you to death, the nutshell version of Protestantism is that Christ was the substitutionary atonement for the sins of the sheep. (You know that in the Bible those who belong to Christ are called sheep.)
According to Christian theology, sin is always paid for. Either Christ paid for your sins on your behalf, or you are punished for them by going to hell. One of the ways that you can be sure Christ paid for your particular sins is that you believe it. That sounds circular as heck, but what you must realize is that all those for whom Christ died are given faith in Him by God. Faith is a gift - those without faith have not been given it.
My Arminian brothers will squawk, but hey, I can’t say anything but what I am.
And, in the grand scheme of things, this faith we have is exchanged for righteousness. And here is how it all works together.
I guess you could say there are three great imputations in scripture:
1. Adam’s sin imputed to all men (the fall or original sin)
2. The sin of the saved imputed to Christ
3. The righteousness of Christ imputed to the saved.
Adam’s sin didn’t just make us prone to doing bad things. It corrupted our character to the point where something drastic needed to be done in order for it to be fixed. You can read in Genesis where it says that this sin brought death into the world. Nothing died until Adam and Eve sinned. And, curiously, the first thing God did when they sinned was kill an animal. To cover them. This became the precedent for everything that would follow.
In other words, God determined from the foundation of the world He’d send His son as a sacrifice and then set up things along the way that pointed to what Christ would do: the Passover lamb, for one. The system of sacrifices in OT Israel, for another. All this was laying the groundwork for the real atonement that would come along.
Until the crucifixion, nobody’s sins were actually forgiven to the point of the sinner being made righteous. They were simply pardoned by the sacrifice of the animal.
But once Christ came, who was sinless (theologians would say He did not have Adam’s blood line in Him and therefore did not inherit Adam’s sin), took our sin upon Himself. In fact, the only way Christ could die is by taking on our sin - after all, Paul says, the wages of sin is death. Death is caused by the fact that we are sinners.
He took our sin. He bore the wrath of God to punish the sin. And, God considered it an acceptable sacrifice on our behalf. Christ raised from the dead - because He had conquered sin. And, He began His work of saving sinners based on the payment that had been made. He takes our stony hearts and gives us hearts of flesh. He makes us ‘new men’ and puts to death the old. And, since He has taken away the sin that causes death in us, we now have eternal life.
There is much more to say but I’ve probably been confusing enough. I will try to remember to check back in case you want more information. But I have tried to simply paint the big picture and hopefully it sticks. I fully realize you may walk away not believing any of this, but at least you will have your answer about what Christianity says.
Respectfully,
MG