The Justice of Atonement

That Christ died is quite different question from why Christ died. A short while ago, a friend of mine mentioned how unjust she thought substitutionary atonement is. How is it that an individual can pass their sins off onto someone else, and He should take our guilt without flying in the face of justice? I never recovered from her question. I thought to myself, there must be some hidden answer; doesn’t the whole of Christianity depend on this moral substitution?

Paul uses an illustration of marriage to explain Christ’s death. When one spouse is married, under law, to another, as long as they both live they are bound to one another. When one dies, so too does the binding. Being bound by God’s law is a reality that ends with the death of God. I would never put forward that God’s mercy could rob His justice, and so His death was necessary. I just also don’t put forward that Christ took my sins; He fulfilled the law by subjecting Himself to death. This is what He meant when He did not come to abolish the law but instead to fulfill it. This is how He took away our sin, by fulfilling law.

To be honest, I’ve struggled with Christ’s death for the law little while, this is the best I’ve come up with. Let me know if I'm wrong.