John 3:16 says "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, so that anyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life". As it is taught in Christianity, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, paid the price that we deserve to pay, so that anyone who believes in Him, should not perish, but be saved from God's wrath, which is yet to come.
Now, if the debt or wages of sin is an infinite debt, and it requires never-ending torture/torment in Hell, then Jesus Christ should still be on the Cross, otherwise we're still in our sins! Traditionalists argue that Jesus Christ, was a perfect God/Man, therefore He didn't need to suffer for eternity to pay the infinite debt that we owe to God. There is a problem with this logic though; an infinite being cannot possibly suffer for a finite period of time and replace it with an infinite period of suffering! It's simple Maths. It just doesn't add up! And of course He had to be perfect and innocent, otherwise He would be just like one of us, in need of redemption!
Having said that, God commands the Israelites in the Torah, to be just. As Exodus 21:24 states, "eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot". Punishing a criminal infinitely for a finite crime, is against God's nature. Traditionalists argue that because God is an infinite being, any rebellion or sin is ultimately against Him, and therefore the debt will be infinite. However, there's a problem with this logic; first of all, as the Bible says, God is just. He never says that people should be punished based on the offendee, but based on the offense! He says that everyone should be treated equally! And rebellion against God also has a punishment which was introduced to Adam in the very beginning. The punishment is "death" as stated in Genesis 2:17 by God Himself. In fact, it was the Serpent who deceived Adam in Genesis 3, saying that the punishment is not death! "The serpent said to the woman, 'You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil'". Genesis 3:4-5. Perhaps one of the most popular verses in the New Testament is Romans 6:23 where Paul says "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord". Interestingly enough, even if the debt is infinite, the fact is that literal death is an infinite punishment, because it is irreversible and its result will last for all eternity!
Traditionalists argue that "death" shouldn't be taken literally in this context, and that the true interpretation is "separation from God". But there's again a problem with this claim, because God makes it crystal clear in Genesis 3 that it's a literal death and its true interpretation is in fact "annihilation"! In Genesis 3:19, God says "For dust you are and to dust you will return". I don't think God could possibly be any clearer, about what "death" really means in this context.
