Still Confused About Why Jesus Died on the Cross—and What It Means? Let’s Talk About It.

When I first started my walk with God, I believed in Him and knew Christianity was the faith I wanted to go deeper in. Jesus, though, was an enigma to me. I had so many questions about Him:

• How could He be the Son of God when God is… God?

•  If God didn’t have parents or a spouse, how did He have a son?

•  Aren’t we all children of God? So what made Jesus different?

• Why did Jesus have to die for our sins? Couldn't we have been saved differently?

Every time I tried to find answers—whether by asking Christians or looking up my questions online—no answer that I found made sense to me. Have you ever asked someone what something meant, and their explanation left you even more confused than before? That was me with these questions.

It wasn't until I started reading the Bible for myself and asking God to make it make sense for me, that I started to understand more about who Jesus is —and what His life, death, and resurrection really mean. So on this Good Friday, I wanted to try my best to answer, in plain English, the biggest question I had about today:

Why did Jesus have to die?

Let’s start here: sin separates us from God. And no matter how kind, spiritual, or good we try to be, we all fall short (Romans 3:23). When we sin, the Bible tells us to repent—to turn away from our sins and ask for forgiveness.

In the Old Testament, repentance wasn’t just a quiet prayer between you and God. People had to make sacrifices—specific, detailed offerings that symbolized repentance and made amends for sin. These sacrifices were intense. Depending on what you did wrong, you had to bring the right kind of animal, at the right age, in perfect condition.

I remember reading some of those chapters in Leviticus and feeling completely overwhelmed by everything they had to do. Then I panicked, wondering if we were still supposed to be doing these things to make amends for our sins. That led me down a rabbit hole of research. And when I found out that we no longer had to offer sacrifices, I had even more questions—If it’s in the Bible, why don’t we still follow it? What changed?

Jesus.

He is the only one who could meet every single requirement of every kind of offering. He lived a sinless life—perfect, without blemish—and willingly became the ultimate sacrifice. He didn’t just cover one category of sin; He covered all of them. This is why people say, “If you put your faith in Jesus, you are saved." Because through His death, Jesus became the final and perfect offering, fulfilling everything the Old Testament sacrifices were meant to represent. And now, instead of trying to offer a perfect lamb or follow a complex set of rules, we offer our faith in Jesus—and that’s enough.

So to put it even more plainly, here's why Jesus died on the cross:

• No matter how good we try to be, we still sin.

• When we sin, we need to repent and be forgiven.

• In the Old Testament, that meant bringing sacrifices to God.

• But we couldn’t keep up—we were never going to be perfect.

• So Jesus, who was perfect, became the ultimate offering.

• He died in our place, once and for all.

• Now, when we repent, our faith in Jesus is the offering we bring to God.

  
  

If you're still unsure…

That’s okay. Breathe and give yourself grace. Understanding all of this didn’t happen for me overnight either. A lot of it started making sense as I took time reading God’s Word, asking Him to help me understand, and being honest about my questions. The more I read, the more I started to see how it all fits together.

That’s why I’m such a huge advocate for spending quiet, honest time with God—just you and Him, with your Bible open, asking Him to show you what He wants to say. If you want to get started with Bible study, but don't know where to start, check out the Bible Study Guide for Beginners —it’s a great way to get started.