A sin, of course, is just an event, a type of choice of a morally responsible agent. In focussing on the presence of our sins on the cross, however, the apologist seems to imply that punishment is of sin and for sinners, making sin the target of God's wrath rather than that which alone could deserve anger and punishment, the accountable cause of sin, the sinner. The apologist has no trouble claiming that sinners themselves will be condemned on Judgment Day and will descend to hell for their punishment. Here where God's punishment is direct without any substitutive sacrifice, the sinner is emphasized in the judgment and is the target of God's wrath. Yet in God's indirect judgment of sinners through Jesus' sacrificial death, the focus is on sin, a deadly power binding sinners and enslaving them to demons, which is subjected to God's wrath on the cross.
Sin is condemned on the cross whereas the sinner is condemned in hell.
The reason for this curious reversal seems clear. The very notion of substitutive sacrifice presupposes love for the sinner. Otherwise, there would be no need of a sacrifice and sinners would be punished directly, as will reportedly happen on Judgment Day. A sacrificial punishment is motivated out of love and mercy for sinners, and a desire not to have them punished directly. Wrath can't be forgotten entirely, though, because there would then be no punishment at all.