What was God's loophole to the death penalty required by the law?
God's loophole to the law's death penalty, expressed as 'the soul that sinneth shall surely die,' is substitution: He died in our place. Because all are sinners through Adam and must die, God reckoned believers crucified with Christ, so they experience that same death in the person of Christ. This is called substitution.
Les explains that the death penalty goes back to God's first instruction to Adam and Eve: 'The day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die,' and to the principle he identifies as Ezekiel: 'The soul that sinneth shall surely die.' Since the law determines every human being is a sinner because we are sons of Adam, every human being has to die. Les calls God's answer a loophole to that law of all laws. The loophole is that He died in our place. Yet believers still must experience that same death He experienced in the person of Christ, and Les calls this substitution. He also teaches that God has reckoned believers as crucified with Christ, since crucifixion can only put to death.