Hi Lupac,
The way I understand this is Jesus died because we have to die. The things is God has determined His plan to be so that all of the human race, because we sin, must suffer death and await the resurrection. Now Jesus volunteered to die, so as to show the degree of love He has for us, it was not because He had to, but because He wanted to, that's why He volunteered. Because God's plan requires death to all of us, so He wants us to know He was not above going through what we have to go through even death on the cross. It was the ultimate thing to do to prove to us how much He loves us.
Rom 5:6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
Rom 5:7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.
Rom 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Rom 5:9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
Rom 5:10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Rom 5:11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php?topic=3720.0 -------
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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hope that helps.
mercy, peace and love
Kat