Why did God have to put believers to death?
God had to put believers to death because His law decreed that every human being, as a son of Adam, is a sinner and must die: “the soul that sinneth shall surely die.” God’s remedy was substitution—Christ died in our place, and believers are reckoned as crucified with Him.
Les explains that God has done all these things on our behalf, including reckoning believers as crucified with Christ. Since crucifixion can only do one thing—put to death—believers have been, in the mind of God, put to death. This had to happen because of the first law God gave the human race: when He told Adam and Eve, “The day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die,” and later said, “The soul that sinneth shall surely die.” If the law has determined that every human being is a sinner because we are sons of Adam, then every human being has to die. Les calls God’s answer a loophole: He died in our place. Yet believers still must experience that same death He experienced in the person of Christ, which is called substitution. Romans 6:6 is the next reference.