Question 18: Is It Injustice for God to Punish and Sacrifice Jesus for the Sins of Others?

The Question

Question 18: God is just, and justice requires that nobody should be punished for the sins of others, nor should some people be saved by punishing other people. Doesn’t the claim that God sacrificed Jesus to save us because He was just, contradict the definition of justice?

The Short Answer

Your main question is: Isn’t it injustice for God to punish and sacrifice Jesus for the sins of others? The short answer is this: God did no injustice to Jesus. God did not commit an act of cruelty or injustice against His Son; rather, He used the unjust actions of evil human and spiritual rulers to establish a divine, legal groundwork for mercy and salvation.

God’s Law on Personal Responsibility

Scripture makes it abundantly clear that God’s law requires personal responsibility for sin. God explicitly forbids punishing one person for another person’s crime:

“Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall the children be put to death for their fathers; a person shall be put to death for his own sin.” (Deuteronomy 24:16)

“The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.” (Ezekiel 18:20)

God’s law remains firm: the soul who sins shall die. Therefore, God did not violate His own law by unjustly executing an innocent man. To understand how Jesus’s sacrifice brings us salvation, we must look at how God used the legal realities of heaven’s court.

God Leveraged the Evil Intentions of Rulers

Just as in the case of Joseph, whose brothers hated him and sold him into slavery, God knew their evil intentions and leveraged them to send Joseph ahead to save lives.

In the same way, God knew that the religious leaders and the spiritual principalities governing the world system hated Jesus and would seek to kill Him. These wicked rulers were so accustomed to murder and corruption that they overlooked a fundamental law of creation: sin is the only legal ground for death. Because Jesus was completely sinless, death had no legal right to claim Him (Hebrews 4:15). Yet, out of envy and malice, they executed Him anyway.

“However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” (1 Corinthians 2:6–8)

The Legal Consequence of Executing an Innocent Man

Because the earthly and spiritual powers murdered a completely sinless man, they committed a profound legal error and became liable in heaven’s court. They made Jesus pay a penalty He did not owe. As a result, Death and the powers of darkness entered into a massive, unpayable debt to Jesus Christ. No value can be placed on the innocent blood and life of the Holy One of God.

Consider this practical legal illustration: If a person is wrongly charged, convicted, and made to pay a massive penalty for a crime they never committed, they possess the legal right to demand damages when the error is exposed in court.

That is precisely what Jesus accomplished in agreement with the Father.

How Propitiation and Redemption Work

Every human descendant of Adam is born with an inherited fallen nature, making sin and spiritual death inevitable (Romans 5:12). Because all have sinned, every human being owes a debt to Death.

However, Jesus was not born from the biological lineage of Adam; He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. He was not born with a sin nature, nor did He inherit Adam’s sentence of death. Throughout His earthly life, He was tempted in every way, yet remained entirely without sin. Death had zero legal claim over Him.

When Death executed Jesus on the cross, Death acted unlawfully. This illegal act created an insurmountable debt that Death owed to Jesus. Through this legal victory, God set forth a decree of divine mercy:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,” (Romans 3:25)

“to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.” (Hebrews 12:24)

“and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” (1 John 2:2)

“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:10)

Justice is fairness and impartiality in applying the appropriate sentence for a crime. If God served pure, unadjusted justice to humanity without mercy, every single person would perish. A good judge tempers justice with mercy. God did not violate justice; He opened a legal window of mercy through Jesus Christ so that anyone who repents and puts their trust in Jesus has their debt cleared and passes from death to life (John 5:24).

Conclusion

God did not commit an act of injustice against Jesus. Instead, He used the unjust actions of earthly and spiritual forces to establish a legal groundwork for mercy. By enduring an unlawful death without sin, Jesus gained the legal authority to clear the debts of every sinner who turns to Him in faith.

Next, I’ll be answering the next question: To Whom Did God Sacrifice Jesus Since He Is the Almighty?

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