Why was Jesus death important?

Q: I have been perplexed by something which has kept me from coming back to the faith “fully”.

If Jesus is God, and he is all knowing, how is dying on the cross a great sacrifice? Wouldn’t he know he’s not actually dying?

I know that Jesus forgiving us of our sins is a sign of love and is a great thing, but I guess I don’t fully understand this.

A: You are right, this would hold you back. Because until you can understand and see the importance of Jesus work -- you cant be saved.

[note. There are links in the answers below, so read the full response here and "then" go to those links.]

Man was created but perfect, yet had the ability to choose to disobey. They did and the Fall was the result. All the suffering and sin and tragedies in the world resulted ever since. But...God wasnt going to leave us like that, so in Eden he promised to recover what was lost and fix it. (However God already knew before the world began this would happen, so the triune God already had a plan and set it in motion.)

God the Word, the second person of the Trinity, took on a human flesh like ours and became God incarnate,"God in human flesh",  the God-man, known as Jesus the Christ [which means Messiah].

He was not born through Adam so he wasnt sin stained like we are with the sin nature. He had the righteous nature as a human that Adam had before the fall. And was God too. 100% God and 100% man.

When Jesus died, it was his humanity that died, not his divinity. And he suffered not simply physical pain and actual death, but infinitely more than that...the Son of God drank the full cup of the wrath of God at our sin, [on the cross he paid the price of the eternal punishment for each person who would ever believe] in order to satisfy the requirements of the law of sin and death, in order to purchase us back from the curse. It was a legal transaction. The currency was Jesus life (paying our debt) by his sacrifice. He paid it in full. So while guilty (sinners) we can (legally) go free from God's court room, if we obey the Gospel. God's grace has allowed this.

Jesus work (his life, death & resurrection) was about redeeming mankind from the curse (the wages of sin is death) so they would be restored to a right relationship and also not be condemned (judged as sinners and sentenced to an eternal wrath filled punishment in Hell). Instead they would be saved from it. Redeemed, bought back.

As the God man Jesus was the only one who could do this work. He had to put on a humanity, because it was man who sinned, so it was a man who had to die, but only a perfect one could. As a man Jesus could obey perfectly, live perfectly in our place and die for our sins. This is why he is our propitiation. We traded places on the cross with him.

As it is written, "God made him (Jesus) who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God."

We believers have that righteous nature and can now live out our purpose as human beings. (That includes having a personal relationship with God).

The only reason he was able to resurrect "death couldnt hold him" was because he was innocent. He never sinned. Thus he has brought victory over death for all who are born again because we live because he lived (resurrected). *And when we shed this temporary body we go to Heaven and put on an new eternal sin free one. Just like he had after the resurrection.

Another part missing from your understanding is that God is the unchanging holy one. He is otherly. While we are created beings who were "made" in His image, we can sin but he cannot. It is not in his nature. He is always eternally Good and Holy. While we were made with a moral nature[which reflected God's character], that nature was marred when sin entered creation (in Eden). So we have a sin nature, until through Christ we obtain the new nature. This is referred to as the righteous nature of Christ, and by God we are born again. We gain the spiritual life (which we never had, as it died in Eden in Adam). We never had spiritual life till we were born again. God then gave us the righteous nature and we are enabled to live a righteous life.

This will explain more clearly (and with links to more about whats discussed below). 

But the key point to note in all of this is God's holiness and the attributes of God. If you grasp that you will have a clearer understanding when you look at the salvation God made possible to us through Jesus.

Note we didnt deserve it [salvation], but he chose to not give us what we do deserve [Hell]. For those who obey the Gospel this is "the good news". And we need to grab at the offer, as desperate people who need it today, as we know that if we die today without it that we would be eternally lost. 

So the key points are mans sinfulness and God's unchanging perfection. We fall far short of his standard [of righteousness - and only the righteous will be in Heaven]. God is just and righteous and good so he must punish sin. We are all on death row in this world, the custodian of the law of sin and death will drag us before the court of God the just judge if we die in our sins. The punishment for the crime is eternal Hell, but if someone pays our fine before we die [if it is applied to our account] - then we are free to leave that court room! We are still guilty 😔but the debt has been paid and we can go free😀. His love saved us.

The debt was so high we could never pay it, but He did. And it came at an immense expense and he went to great lengths to make the way of salvation possible for mankind.

We love God 🥰 because he first loved us. And he proved it when he laid down his life for us. Scripture explains this.

What a wonderful God and Savior. 😍

Obey the Gospel today, and be made right with God. Then follow Christ your Savior. 

*This includes a free study on the Attributes of God. I recommend going through this.