All of these are good points and you are right that they stand in contradiction to the idea that Christ died as a payment we owe.
The opposite. They back up the Biblical position of the gospel of Christ that Christ died for the sins of His people.
"God justified His elect, who are wicked and ungodly by nature and by practice, through the perfect righteousness of Christ imputed to them. God also condemned and punished the Lord Jesus Christ, the just ONE, through the sins of His elect imputed to Him. This was in no way a perversion of God’s justice. Men make it so because they hate the doctrine of imputation, especially imputed righteousness. Why? It is because it leaves them with no room to boast in (or think highly of) themselves. The glorious truth that God justly punished His Son for sins imputed to Him and that God is just to justify sinners based on Christ’s righteousness imputed to them is the heart of the Gospel, the reality of real substitution, and the glory of God’s people. It is one of the major truths separating true Christianity from all false religions.
To impute means to “lay to the charge or account of” in the matter of the demerit or
debt of sin or the merit or credit of righteousness. It has to do with one being legally and justly charged with the responsibility and liability of
a debt owed or
a debt paid. For example, if you were a million dollars in debt to a local bank, and you were totally bankrupt, without one penny to pay towards diminishing that
debt, there would still remain one million dollars imputed or charged to your account. If you were to go to the bank and cast yourself upon their mercy, you know it would do you no good. You are in
debt. The law says you are legally responsible to pay that
debt. Such
debt would be bondage, like being in
debtor’s prison. But imagine going to the bank president to beg for mercy. The bank president says, “Let’s look at your account in the books.” He opens the books, finds your name, and he says, to your surprise, “There is no charge here to you. You do not owe one million dollars. Someone came in and told us to put
your debt on his account. He said, ‘Charge it to me. I’ll pay it.’ And he did. It is paid – the whole amount. You owe nothing!” Could you imagine how relieved you would be? How legally free and liberated in spirit and mind you would be? But then the banker says, “Hold on, I have more information for you. That same person who paid
your debt has placed one million dollars into your account. He said, ‘Charge or credit it to him. This is his money which I earned and have given to him.’” You must admit that if this were to happen, you would not be able to describe your joy and peace in not only
having your debt paid but also in having a million dollars imputed or credited to your account. It is the same with the doctrine of imputation when it comes to the justification of a sinner.
God does not impute trespasses to His people. He does not charge them
with sin or its debt. To whom did God charge them? He charged them to Jesus Christ as the Substitute and
Surety of His people. God the Father “made Him to be sin for us.” This is the
imputation of the debt of the sins of God’s elect to Christ. Again, some say that it would be unjust for God to do this because Christ did no sin and knew no sin, but they fail to see the reality of real substitution and what it is to be
a surety.
A surety is one who willingly takes responsibility for another’s debt. In the everlasting covenant of grace, the Lord Jesus Christ willingly agreed to
take responsibility for the sins, the debt, of His people."
Bible verses for the excerpt above at
SKU-000697434_TEXT.indd (b5z.net), starting at page 42, last paragraph, "IMPUTATION".
This should be clear if one is familiar with what a
surety is:
Hebrews 7:22 By so much was Jesus
made a surety of a better testament.
Hebrews 7:27 Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's:
for this he did once, when he offered up himself.
(emphasis mine)
