Bede the Venerable: The Death of His Body Substituted for the Death of Our Soul

We who have come into the world with fault cannot exist in the world without fault, but the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, cleanses us from all sin, that our sins may not keep us under the authority of the enemy for the reason that mediator between God and man, the man, Jesus Christ, gave up for our sake what he did not owe. For he who for our sake gave up the death of his body, which he did not owe, freed us from the death of the soul, which we owed. Bede the Venerable, Commentary on the Seven Catholic Epistles, at 1 John 1:8 (Cisterian Studies Series, #82, p. 164), translated by Dom David Hurst, O.S.B.