As everybody should know by now, “Christ died for our sins” (and, of course, He was buried and rose again the third day as well), as Paul wrote in order to explain what the Good News (meaning the Gospel) he proclaimed is.
Please don’t confuse this as meaning that Christ died in our place, receiving the penalty for our sins so we wouldn’t have to receive said penalty for our sins ourselves, however, as many Christians believe He did (so long as we choose to believe He did so, they’d also claim). Of course, even if the idea that Christ paid the price for our sins in our place was a scriptural concept, it makes no sense that we would have to choose to believe He paid the price for our sins in our place in order for Him to have actually paid the price for our sins in our place (He either did or He didn’t, and our belief couldn’t change the fact either way), because if those who didn’t choose to believe it then had to pay the price themselves, it would mean God was double-charging, which would be quite dishonest of Him (not to mention most unfair to His Son, Who endured beatings and the pain and humiliation of the cross before entering the death state, all in order to be a ransom for all sinners in order to save them, and God isn’t going to shortchange Him of any of the sinners He suffered and died for in order to save, regardless of whether some of them might not have been born wise enough to come to believe He did so prior to their death or His return — and those who don’t believe this Good News includes most Christians out there as well, by the way, since they themselves don’t believe that He ransomed “all” humanity through His death for our sins either, which means they haven’t fully understood, and hence can’t be said to have truly believed, Paul’s Gospel, and as such can’t be said to be in the body of Christ, although that’s a topic for another time, but please read the articles in my Consistent Soteriology Bible study if you aren’t familiar with what I just wrote).
That said, there’s absolutely nothing written anywhere in Scripture which even implies that Jesus died “in our place,” or that He received the penalty for anyone’s sins “in their place” so they wouldn’t have to pay the price for their sins themselves. However, for those who have never really thought about this, let’s consider what it would mean if He actually did pay a penalty for our sins so that we don’t have to suffer that particular penalty ourselves. If He did, and if ending up in the lake of fire without being able to leave it was the penalty for our sins (whether consciously or otherwise), it would mean that Jesus would have to still be burning in the lake of fire (experiencing the specific punishment we deserve is what paying the penalty “in our place” means, after all). But since He never even set foot in the lake of fire to begin with (He couldn’t have, since it hasn’t even begun burning in the Valley of Hinnom over in Israel yet, at least not as of the time this article was written, and He wasn’t crucified or buried in that “hell”/valley either — the word “hell” basically just means “hole,” for those who don’t know, and a valley is an elongated, uncovered hole, hence the translation in less-literal Bible versions), much less remained there for all time (which would have to be the case if that truly was the price to be paid for our sins that He paid), burning without end in the lake of fire obviously wasn’t a punishment He suffered “in our place,” which means it couldn’t possibly be the specific penalty we deserve either, at least not if He did pay the penalty we deserved “in our place.” And if the penalty He supposedly paid “in our place” was simply death instead, nobody who “got saved” would ever actually drop dead, which obviously isn’t the case (and it couldn’t simply be crucifixion that He endured “in our place” either, or else all non-believers would have to eventually be literally crucified as their punishment, but there’s definitely nothing in Scripture which even implies this to be the case). This also means the penalty couldn’t be never-ending “separation from God,” since, if it were, Jesus would also have to be separated from God at this point in time, and for all time, in order to truly “pay the penalty in our place.” And for those who want to suggest that the penalty might be “spiritual death,” whatever that’s supposed to be, it would again have to mean that A) Christ “died spiritually” for us “in our place” rather than died physically on the cross (and I’m assuming nobody actually believes He “died spiritually”), but also that B) nobody can be “spiritually dead” before they die physically if Christ paid that penalty “in our place,” yet most Christians believe we’re already “spiritually dead” prior to salvation, so there’s no way He could have “died spiritually” for us “in our place” so we don’t have to ever “die spiritually” ourselves, because we’re already in this spiritual state before we get saved (or we would be if the common Christian viewpoints of “spiritual death” and that Jesus paid the price in our place were actually true, of course).
This doesn’t mean that there isn’t a penalty for our sins, however. In fact, there is, and that penalty is indeed death (specifically, to die and remain permanently dead). It’s just that Jesus didn’t die “in our place” to receive the penalty so we don’t have to, which should be obvious considering the fact that believers continue to drop dead today (and also because He didn’t remain permanently dead, which is a part of the penalty). And while it’s true that the reason we die is simply the mortality we inherited from Adam, the sins we can’t avoid because of that mortality also make us worthy of the death most of us will experience, so any mortal humans who end up sinning still need to have their sin dealt with (which is all of us, or at least all of us who don’t die before we’re able to sin, although everyone who does die prior to that point will presumably eventually sin as they grow up on the New Earth after they’ve been resurrected, as explained in that series of articles I mentioned earlier). Because, sure, God could temporarily overlook and forgive sin, and in “Old Testament” times He did indeed pass over the penalties of many sins which occurred (especially the sins of those who participated in the sacrificial system under the Mosaic law, presuming they didn’t commit “a sin unto death,” meaning a sin that had a death penalty attached to it under the law), and Jesus also forgave sins during His earthly ministry, prior to His death (which was technically still during “Old Testament times). But the blood of bulls and goats could not actually take away sins (the death of these animals couldn’t actually remove the penalty of sin, nor could it keep us from sinning again), and so if Christ had not given His life for us (and if God hadn’t known ahead of time that this was going to happen), it would have actually been unjust of God (Who judges according to truth) to pass over the penalty of their sins (which is what forgiveness is) and treat them as if they hadn’t sinned and weren’t deserving of death (and the same goes for Jesus forgiving people if He didn’t know ahead of time what He was going to do), even if they did perform the required sacrifices under the law (and it would be equally unjust of Him to simply forgive us today without what Christ did as well).
Because He lived a completely sinless life and then became “obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,” however, Christ Jesus became more deserving of the authority to save us sinners than we sinners remained deserving of permanent death. In fact, He was given all power (meaning authority, having been translated from the Greek word ἐξουσία/“ex-oo-see’-ah” rather than δύναμις/“doo’-nam-is” in this verse) in heaven and in earth, and so, now, not only does Christ have the authority to save all of the sinners He died to save from the condemnation which our sins made us deserving of (that condemnation being to remain permanently in the death state after we die), as well as to quicken everyone‘s mortal bodies (make us immortal, in other words) and destroy death altogether (which He’ll do by resurrecting everyone and making them all immortal), God is now also able to righteously forgive sins at any time (without our consent, even, if He wants to do so) because His doing so is in accord with what Christ deserves due to His obedience. And since Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 1:15 that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” and not that Christ Jesus came into the world to save only those few sinners who happened to be wise enough to decide to let Him save them, every sinner will ultimately end up saved in the end because it’s what Christ Jesus came to do and also deserves. (And I should probably also point out that the condemnation we deserve for our sins is not the same condemnation that we experience because of Adam’s sin, since that was simply condemnation to mortality leading to death, which in turn condemned us to give in to sin, whereas it’s that sin we give in to thanks to our mortality which is what makes us deserve to eventually be condemned to remain dead permanently — which means we could also say that we’ve been condemned to be condemned to be condemned, with Christ dying in order to save us from all of those forms of condemnation, along with other forms of condemnation that I don’t have the time to get into the details of right now as well, at least in the case of some people.)
So, while He didn’t die “in our place,” or pay the penalty “in our place” (since most of us still die, and since He didn’t remain dead), Christ did die in order that the penalty could be justly set aside at whatever point God decides to do so for each of us (although “every man in his own order”), at which time each of us will be justified, be resurrected (if we’ve died), and be made free from even being able to die ever again (be quickened/made immortal, in other words). That’s not all, though. Because He died for our sins, He not only condemned sin (not us — sin itself) in the flesh, but His death also put away sin, removing sin from the equation for all humanity altogether, even if perhaps only proleptically for the time being (thus making Him the antitype of the goat in the wilderness in the Mosaic law, among other things), and if sin has been put away, in some ways it can be said that it’s ultimately no longer something anyone needs to worry about at all (and in the long run, humanity as a whole definitely doesn’t have to worry about it). You see, when He went down into the tomb, it can be said that He brought sin down into the earth with Him, and when He was resurrected three days later, He returned without that sin, and so sin is no longer being held against anyone anymore (at least from an absolute perspective, even if not, perhaps, from a relative perspective), regardless of whether they believe it or not, because Christ died for our sins, which is yet more proof that everyone will experience salvation in the end, when they’re eventually made immortal and incapable of sinning any longer (although those relative few who “come unto the knowledge of the truth” now, meaning those who understand and believe what it means that Christ died for our sins, and that He was buried and rose again on the third day, get to enjoy a special form of salvation on top of the type of salvation that everyone will experience: including freedom from religion — because they know there’s nothing they have to do, or even that they could do, in order to receive the benefits of what Christ did for us, since they’re aware that having to do any act at all would be a work performed in order to earn that gift, even if that act was simply having to choose to receive the free gift that Christ already guaranteed for all of us — and also getting to experience that salvation before the rest of humanity does too, being quickened long before the majority of humanity will be, among other benefits once we’re in heaven as well).