A Sacrifice is not a Payment

"Our Daily Bread" is one of my favourite daily devotionals that I have been using for years. Generally speaking I usually can affirm its writers' views, yet sometimes there are some details that I can't agree with. ODB for today (17 March 2006) is one of this rare example.

Although I can affirm the overall content of it (http://www.rbc.org/odb/odb-03-17-06.shtml), I disagree with this part:
"It was the death of Christ—the shedding of His blood— that satisfied the demand of a holy God as payment for our sins (Hebrews 9:12,22)."
[The biblical quotations i.e. Hebrews 9:12,22 are explained below.]

This is a strict forensic view of Atonement/Redemption i.e. Anselm's theory of Penal Substitution. According to this theory, that is supported by Roman Catholicism and most Protestant churches, Christ paid the price of our sin to God. The obvious problems with this view are:
1. If the payment was really paid to God, it means that Christ redeemed us from God!
2. Since our Lord Jesus Christ used the word "ransom" in Matthew 20:28 and Mark 10:45; if the ransom was paid to God, it means God was the one who held us captives and didn't want to let us go until the ransom was paid.
3. It says that God didn't want to forgive us until our debts were all paid by Christ. In reality if a debt is paid, it cannot be forgiven because there is no need for forgiveness. If I owed you one million dollars and somebody has paid it to you on my behalf, do I still need your forgiveness i.e. cancellation of debt? The Bible clearly says that God forgives us but never that God accepted any payment. The prodigal son's father didn't ask for payment but he freely forgave [Luke 15:11-32]. The parable told by our Lord in Matthew 18:23-35 about forgiveness also clearly shows that either the king forgave a debt or demanded full payment. There is no such thing as forgiving a debt that is already paid. Anselm's view seems to suggest that God was more unforgiving than the prodigal son's father or the king; clearly contradicts the Gospel.
4. Lord Jesus Christ's blood was offered to God as a sacrifice [Hebrew 9:14], not a payment. In fact, if it was a payment to God then for Him it was not a sacrifice or offering. If a person pays you what I owed you, we can't say that his payment is an offering to you. Of course I agree that Christ suffered as a sacrifice for our sake. And not only that, the Scripture also explicitly says that it was an offering to God. New Testament never uses the word "pay" or "payment" in the context of Christ's work on the cross.
5. Usually Anselm's view is understood that Jesus Christ as God the Son paid the penalty of our sins to God the Father. If so, why the payment was to God the Father and not including God the Son and God the Holy Spirit? If the payment was to the Most Holy Trinity, doesn't it mean that God the Son suffered to make payment to Himself? Why couldn't He forgive us as the figures (the father of the prodigal son or the king) in His parables?

Here are the links to today's ODB scriptural reading i.e. Hebrew 9:11-22
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews%209:11-22&version=31 (NIV)
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews%209:11-22;&version=47 (ESV)
This passage doesn't say anything about payment but about offering/sacrifice. The blood of Christ as an offering to God also purifies our conscience [and cleanses us from all sin; cf. 1 John 1:7]. This passage also shows us that Christ's sacrificial death has redeemed us from transgressions/sin.

Christ is our Passover, which means that the Passover in Old Testament was a shadow of what Christ has accomplished for us. In OT God redeemed Israel from slavery in Egypt, yet did God pay anything to Pharaoh? Of course not! Did God pay himself a ransom so that Israel could be redeemed? Also not! He didn't make payment to anyone for Israel's redemption. Christ also didn't make payment to anyone in redeeming us from sin.

Many Christians think of sin merely in legal sense i.e. breaking of law that has to be penalized. In reality sin is more than that, it's like a disease. Sin indeed is a breaking of law, but not only law in legal sense but law in real sense (similar to gravity law or laws in nature). Christ's blood cleanses us from sin, not merely in legal sense but more like blood transfusion.

When we miss a good opportunity and suffer from its consequences, we can say thay we are paying for the miss, and it doesn't mean that we make any payment to anyone. In this sense, our Lord suffered for us and really paid for our sin, but He didn't make any payment to anyone. He suffered death (the wage of sin) in our place and defeated death by His resurrection, freeing us from sin and its sting (death).

Soon again we'll celebrate Christ our Passover/Pascha, who loves us so much, whose death on the cross and resurrection has secured our salvation. May our Lord's abundant grace always be with us, to keep us abiding in Him all the time. Amen!