wonderment, good question. I would also like to know the same. The answers so far are the regular stuff I get from pastors and others that I ask. Quoting scriptures with explanations that still do not tell me the necessity or value (as apposed to say, Jesus deciding not to go through with his death) of dieing. I would understand this as an example only, a statement of the passion God has for us to set up such an example for us to follow as a standard of excellence necessary for us to be called righteous but this would be problematic with being saved by works. Stating he died for my sin is a quote and I see the obvious correlation to the sacrificial laws but still do not see the necessity of any person dieing to remove anything. The animals paid for nothing, they were for an example, prophecy and staging of what was to take place with Jesus. Except for the Israelites obedience to the laws the animals and sacrifices did nothing, there blood was of no value to forgive or remove any sins. Why would God require Jesus' blood? How does this material or act rescind my Sin?
Have you read any of this Paper from Ray yet? There is a whole lot of information that will more than answer your questions. There is an excerpt below for some quick answers, please read the entire paper asap, it will help with a lot of other difficult questions.Excerpt From: THE FATHER'S WILL?
http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,3720.msg27960.html#msg27960John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting (Eonian) life."
Why did God do that? And why did Christ volunteer to go to the cross? Well I’ve been told all my life that He died for my sins. But did He have to? Did He have to die for our sins? Is there no way to pardon sins, out of His love and mercy? Couldn’t He say, 'okay you have sinned, but I pardon you.' After all what is grace.
Eph 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith.”
Grace will save you, so why die? Did Christ have to die? Why did God want to die? Why would God want to become a man? When I say God I’m talking about Jehovah, Jesus Christ. Did the Father ‘make’ His Son Jesus die? Did He ‘take’ His Son’s life? NO!
John 10:17 For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it up again.
v. 18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from My Father."
Jesus VOLUNTEERED HIS LIFE for us !!! While we were yet sinners (Rom. 5:08). What the law couldn’t do and we couldn’t do, CHRIST DID (Rom. 8:3).
We must experience sin before we can be saved from it! How did Elohim come to a knowledge of “good and evil?” We aren’t told.
Why did God want to become a man and die? Well there are a number of reasons. Jesus Christ is the First fruit, He is the Word, He is the Creator of all and so on. He made this human race and He gave them (all with the direction of the Father - Elohim) an experience of evil, which is not a nice thing. God did not say there is nothing wrong with evil, just sit back and enjoy it, He doesn’t talk like that.
Eze 33:11 “Say to them: As I live, says the Lord Jehovah, I have no delight in the death of the wicked,”
God made us, He put us through it, but we will never in all eternity, be able to have a one-upmanship over God, by saying you don’t know what it’s like. It’s already decided. First of all, God gave up His Son, and for any of you that are parents, it is harder to give up a son than it is to give up yourself.
Now Christ is the actual Creator, He reduced Himself down to the very humans He made, to be just like them. Except He had the Spirit of God. So He came down to show us how to live as a human being, under all the duress, stress, and mess and He did it humbly and perfectly.
So He set us an example and He could have stopped there. He could say I went through hunger, they tried to throw me off cliffs, they slapped Me, they mocked Me. They put spears in My side and He could have zapped them in a second. He let them do that for 33 years and never fought back, and never had a evil thought against them.
He showed you how to live and He could have quit. But after He did all that, He said now I’m going to die for you, because I love you. Think about it, He didn’t have to die, nobody took His life. He said I lay down My life and “no one takes it from Me,” (John 10:18). He died to prove to us that He loves us. He didn’t have to, He just did it. So we would know that He loves us. We can’t say, but our Creator had it made in the shade, no. He came down and was under the same temptations, under the same rules and regulations and then He went to the cross and died, voluntarily. He says in effect, if that doesn’t show that I love you, I don’t know what else I can do.
So that’s what He did and that’s why He died, because He loved us and He wanted to prove it. So He died for our sins. God accepted that for a sacrifice, but it was a voluntary sacrifice. It wouldn’t have needed to be done, they did it that way, but it didn’t need to be done that way.
They (Israelites) were forgiven for a whole year, just by the sprinkling of a goat’s blood, in the Holy place on the Day of Pentecost. But Christ wanted to prove to the human race that He was every bit as good of a man, as any other man was. He doesn’t sit in His ivory tower telling us how great He is. He did it as a man. God became a man and died, because He loves His creation and He wanted us to know He loves us.
This is awesome stuff. It’s like a fairytale from Greek mythology, but it’s not, it the Bible.
So He puts us through hell to get us in His family. It’s necessary to go through this pain and suffering and evil, to become holy, righteous, and good, you have to go through it.
george