And so thus, double payment for sins? Christ paid at the cross for the sins later paid again by the sinner in the Lake of Fire?
The payment owed is righteousness, which man cannot do because of sin. Only Christ by His life, death, and resurrection has made perfect satisfaction for the just requirements of the Law, being righteous in our stead. That is why the one act of obedience brings justification to all, even as the one act of disobedience brought sin and death to all.
Christ, in taking on our sin and death has brought them into Himself and put them to death on the cross. So that the just condemnation of the Law which stands against us has also been satisfied in Him. And thus, through faith, whoever believes in Him receives His righteousness, imputed to them as pure grace. And having His righteousness is no longer under the condemnation of the Law. But without that imputation of righteousness through faith we remain under the condemnation of the Law.
So that what Christ has won for us on the cross becomes ours through faith, and this is the gift, work, and power of God by His grace.
So that the perfect work of Christ for all men might come to us men, as individuals, that we might receive it as God's gift.
Without receiving God's gift we cannot benefit of Christ's work. For this reason God has caused His word to go forth, through the Church, to all nations, calling all to repentance and faith in Christ. The call of the Gospel is to all, for Christ died for all, for God desires that all be saved.
There is nobody Christ did not die for. There is nobody that is outside the call and power of the Gospel. There is nobody that God cannot save. There is nobody that God is unwilling to save.
All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
Sin and death came to all through the disobedience of Adam.
Christ made just satisfaction for all.
So that God having consigned all to disobedience has chosen to have mercy on all.
And it is the will and desire of God that all be saved.
Not that all [necessarily] will be saved. But that is the will and desire of God that they be saved.
So that, in the end, it is God's work alone that saves. Just as it is our work alone that condemns and damns us.
So that the condemnation of the Law indeed stands against our works, and it is our works which will testify against us on the Last Day. Through faith alone, passively receiving the righteousness of Jesus Christ as pure gift, will we pass through Judgment to life everlasting.
Should we find ourselves in hell, it will not be for the lack of God's love and grace toward us, or the lack of Christ's merit to save us. It will be because we have abhorred forgiveness and grace and have willed it ourselves to be there. For we despised the light and loved darkness, for our works were wicked.
-CryptoLutheran