Did Jesus Need to Die for Our Forgiveness?
Understanding Why the Death of Christ Was Necessary to Redeem Us
I saw a post-Easter video recently in which a young woman argued that Jesus Christ didn’t need to die to atone for our wrongdoing. She claimed that God could have simply forgiven us for the bad things we’ve done, pointing out that people forgive one another every day.
It’s an understandable thought. Why can’t God just forgive us without requiring the sacrifice of Jesus? If we truly feel remorse for our wrongdoing, wouldn’t it be moral to just let it go, so to speak?
These are fair questions. In fact, they often become real stumbling blocks for those who are genuinely searching for God. That’s why we need to be prepared to answer them clearly and graciously.
Understanding Forgiveness
Before we can understand why Jesus died for us, we first need to understand what forgiveness really means.
Many of us think forgiveness is simply saying “I’m sorry,” and just letting the wrong done against us go. That sounds nice on the surface, but it fails to recognize something important: a debt is still incurred, and a cost is still paid.
For example, when student loans are forgiven, the debt doesn’t disappear. The burden is simply shifted from the individual who took on the loan to the taxpayer.
This illustrates a broader principle: debt never vanishes. Someone always pays.
When it comes to debt incurred through wrongdoing, the same reality applies.
If someone steals from you, what are your options? You can seek justice to recover what was taken, or you can forgive them and absorb the loss yourself.
But in any scenario, someone pays a price.
Even with something as simple as verbal slander, forgiveness does not remove the pain; the one slandered still bears it.
Forgiveness, then, is not a simple release of injustice. It is more like the cancellation of a debt owed, to be paid by another.
Love and Justice
Once we understand what real forgiveness entails, we can begin to see how it relates to love and justice.
To help illustrate this, imagine the pain you’d feel if a loved one were brutally murdered. Now further imagine the government, which is the very institution meant to uphold the law, simply tells the murderer “We forgive you,” and lets them go free.
That would not be loving to the victim or their family. It would be an atrocious act of injustice.
In contrast, a good parent would not allow an older sibling to repeatedly beat up a younger one. Parents who love both children recognize that it would be unloving to the younger child to simply forgive the older one without just consequences, resulting in a continued cycle of abuse.
Lastly, remorse over an act is not the standard by which a debt of justice is considered paid. Drunk drivers who kill people often feel remorse. Abusive fathers may feel deep regret when they sober up. Yet we recognize they still deserve justice for the lives they have harmed.
It would not be loving to say, “We know you feel really bad for now, so you are free to go.”
“It is not good to be partial to the wicked or to deprive the righteous of justice.” - Proverbs 18:5
Infinite Demand
Real love, therefore, demands real justice.
But it goes even deeper. If we truly are God’s image bearers, as Scripture teaches, then our wrongdoing is not merely horizontal. It is also vertical. We are not only committing injustices against one another, but also against an eternal, infinite God.
Consider this example. A business owner gives an employee special authority to make payment decisions on behalf of the company. Now imagine a hacker steals that employee’s identity and uses it to send fraudulent payments from the company account.
The hacker has not only wronged the individual. Because that employee represents the company, they have also committed an offense against the company itself.
Likewise, the evil we commit, no matter how trivial it may seem, is not only against people, but also against the One they represent.
And what’s worse is that none of us seem to be capable of righteousness. Even the best among us fail at times. And so even if we had eternity to work off our debts, we would simply keep racking up more unless someone saves us from ourselves.
But God cannot allow evil to persist forever, as that would contradict both His justice and His love. So there comes a point at which He must judge and end it.
And so we all face a coming trial, a day when we will be judged. A final sentence in which God permanently quarantines those who have rejected Him and who cling to evil, removing them from His presence so they can no longer corrupt His good creation.
“They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.” - 2 Thessalonians 1:9
God’s Grace
So how does a loving God preserve us while still carrying out the justice that love requires?
To help illustrate this, imagine a king who discovers theft within his treasury. After investigating, he finds that it was his own daughter who had been stealing. He loves his daughter, but he is a just king, and thus cannot ignore the law to save her.
So the king, upholding justice, tearfully pronounces the sentence: one hundred lashes, a death sentence.
As the executioner chains her and prepares to begin, the king suddenly commands him to stop. He removes his own robe, covers his daughter, placing himself between her and the executioner. He then tells the executioner to begin.
The executioner hesitates, knowing the weight of what he is about to do, but obeys the king’s decree. The lashes begin. Blow after blow falls upon the king. He has the authority to stop it at any moment, yet he does not. He endures it as his daughter trembles in his arms, until the sentence is fully carried out.
One hundred lashes, followed by the King’s death. Justice is satisfied, but the king, the very lawgiver himself, voluntarily paid the price to save his child, a price far greater than if he had simply allowed her to bear the judgment.
This is what Jesus did for us, but on an eternal scale. As God, sharing the Father’s nature, He became man, lived a sinless life, and willingly took the punishment we deserved.
Not because we deserve it, but because He loves us beyond measure.
As finite beings, we could never repay an infinite debt to God. But Jesus, being God, is both willing and able to pay for our past, present, and future sins. Though innocent, He allowed the guilty to take His life, so that God’s justice would fall on Him instead of us.
“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 command I received from my Father.” - John 10:18
The amazing truth is that this gift of debt forgiveness is freely offered to all of us, paid for by the blood of Christ. All we have to do is recognize and receive it. By confessing that Jesus is Lord and placing our trust in His sacrifice, our debt is fully cleared, and we are given a place with God for eternity.
As we turn our hearts toward God, we allow Him to transform us, using that forgiveness to work out our salvation. He gradually removes our desire for evil (sanctification), preparing us for eternity with Him, where we will be free from sickness, corruption, and the desire to do wrong (glorification).
After death comes judgment (Heb 9:27). Before that day, we all must choose:
Receive grace, be transformed, and dwell with God for eternity,
or
Bear the justice we rightly deserve, remain in our sin forever, and be eternally separated from the source of all goodness.
Why Should You Be Let into Heaven?
There is far more to say about God’s grace and how the historical resurrection of Christ confirmed His victory over death. But for the sake of brevity, I want to leave you with a final question.
If you died today and stood before God, and He asked why you should be allowed into heaven, what would your answer be?
Many people pause here…
They think about the good they’ve done or the remorse they’ve felt over their wrongs, as if these things somehow cancel their debt and cure their corrupted hearts. They look back on their lives, searching for the perfect response.
But when you truly understand God’s grace and the Gospel message, you realize there is only one sufficient answer:
“Because Christ, the Son of God who is God, died for me. Because He took upon Himself the justice I was due. Because He willingly paid the price for me. Because I trust in His sacrifice.”