God and Jesus
Why did Jesus have to die?
Short answer
Because sin is real and deadly. On the cross Jesus took the penalty we deserved, so we can be forgiven and brought back to God.
Sin is turning away from the God who gives us life, and it damages us and others. A good judge can't pretend evil never happened. If God shrugged at sin, He would not be good.
At the cross, justice and love meet. Jesus, who had no sin, stood in our place. Isaiah wrote that He would be pierced for our transgressions, and by His stripes we are healed. This was no angry Father punishing an unwilling son: Jesus laid His life down freely.
The cross shows how serious your sin is and how much you are loved. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Your sin needed a cross, and the cross was enough for all of it.
My verses
But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.
But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.
The reason the Father loves Me is that I lay down My life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from My Father.