Andrew Menkis writes a good article on how Jesus’ brief time on the cross could pay for an eternity of sin. When someone objects that Jesus couldn’t have paid the price for your sins unless he goes to hell forever, ask them why. Why must Jesus go to hell forever in order to have paid my price? Why does the passage of time matter so much? The objection doesn’t even make sense, but Menkis writes a good response.
How Did Jesus Suffer Eternal Punishment in Only 3 Hours?
Haden Clark 
W.G.T Shedd suggested that the punishment for sin is eternal because the sinner does not cease to sin after death. To die outside of Christ is to die un-redeemed. There has been no propitiation, no regeneration, no justification, no sanctification, no change to a new creature. To die outside of Christ is to remain forever in rebellion against the eternal creator God. When Christ died for his people, he took responsibility for their sin. It was because of that sin-bearing that Jesus died. He could not have been condemned and executed without being that sin-bearer. When he died for those sins, the judgment due to them was finished. There can no longer be any condemnation for those for whom Jesus died. Of the sins for which Jesus died, there was no chargeable sin left. If there had been, Jesus could not have risen from the dead. He had made himself responsible for them, and he had to pay that debt in full. So, having dealt with all the sins that he bore, and remaining in himself perfectly sinless, it was impossible for death to hold him in the grave.
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