Kay

“How does this double payment reconcile with a Just God?”

Gazza,
The unrepentant unbeliever did not acquire Christ’s atonement, which is only applicable through faith. The unrepentant unbeliever did not take what Jesus accomplished for them because it is only applied through faith.

The only way for there to be a double payment would be if Jesus paid the price for one’s sins and the sinner received the atonement by faith and then *was still* sent to hell. In that scenario we would find an unjust double payment.

The condition which God established for the sinner to be justified is faith in Christ’s blood (Rom. 3:24-26). Since the unbeliever is not justified, having failed to believe, in what sense can it be maintained that Christ’s sacrifice was applied to his or her account? A genuine offer of atonement was made in the unbeliever’s stead. However, the unbeliever failed to receive it by faith. A person is saved to the uttermost by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone (Acts 4; Eph. 2:8-9).