Someone asks, “Why did Jesus die?” He died for you and me so that we could be saved from our sins, whereby we could come into the presence of God spiritually on earth and later literally in heaven where God is. Mortals can be sanctified through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for mankind’s sins (Hebrews 10:10).
For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another — He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation. (Hebrews 9:24-28 NKJV)
“Who Himself [Jesus Christ] bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness — by whose stripes you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24). “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18). “And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5).
The death of Christ was the chief and most important benevolent act ever shown to mankind. God the Father sent Jesus Christ (John 3:16-17; 1 John 4:14), who willingly came into this world to ransom man’s souls back to God. Jesus Christ paid the ransom price by surrendering His sinless self to death on our behalf to make up for our sins (1 Timothy 2:5-6). Thereby, we mortals can have a relationship or fellowship with a sinless God, if we appropriate to ourselves the benefit of Christ’s sacrifice by obeying Him (Hebrews 5:8-9). Jesus summarized this saving obedience in Mark 16:16 when He said, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”
