Why did Jesus have to die?
Because God exists, absolute truth exists. Because God lives every moment in accordance with the laws of absolute truth, He is flawless and holy. He intends us, His children, to be flawless and holy, because He made us in His image.
God wants us to live with Him forever, but only beings who are as perfect and holy as God can reside in His presence. When God created us, He gave us agency, which is the ability to choose to live like Him. Because of this agency, however, we also have the ability to choose to act in ways that are not aligned with God.
So that our agency would be effective, God allows evil to exist alongside good. He created a world in which we would face opposition: the tree of knowledge of good and evil vs. the tree of life. God also cut us off from His direct presence so we could make choices without fear of immediate judgment and retribution. We are, therefore, free to choose to align ourselves perfectly with God or not.
Every human born on this earth has a dual nature. Our spirits come from God, and our bodies are of the earth. Our earthly bodies are driven by appetites and passions that throw us out of alignment with God's way of life. Our spirits have to learn to manage and control our earthly bodies. In the learning process, we make mistakes. Like learning to walk, we stumble and trip. And just as willful toddlers intentionally touch a hot stove or run out into the street because they don't understand consequences, we may likewise intentionally choose actions that are not in harmony with God's will. Mistakes are called transgressions, and willful rebellion is sin.
The reality of life on earth is that no one chooses correct actions every time. Every human being has made mistakes and intentionally turned away from God to do something they think will make them happy.
Because of our agency, we are accountable for our choices. We may plead ignorance for some mistakes, but for purposeful disregard for God's standards, we are guilty as charged. Everyone who has ever been born has failed to live up to God's perfect expectations.
The law of eternal justice, by which God abides, requires a punishment for every broken law. Additionally, once a soul is guilty of a sin, that soul remains guilty forever. Suffering the punishment does not remove the guilt. In the human justice system, a thief who has "paid his debt to society" may be allowed to re-enter society, but he can never "unsteal" the thing he stole that made him a thief. God's justice works the same way. I can stop stealing and repay all that I took from others, and so regain a measure of trust and respectability, but the stain of my former guilt will never leave me. I will also be the former thief who stopped stealing; I can never be the man who never stole.
After I have stolen, even once, I will forever be unworthy and incapable of residing in the presence of the perfect, holy God. Even after I have received the punishment for my crime and lived the rest of my life in perfect honesty, the flaw in my character will not allow me to stand in the vicinity of God. His perfect glory will repel me, and I will run from Him to hide my guilt.
That's not what God wants for me, however. He wants me to learn from my mistakes and bad choices. He wants me to grow in my desire and ability to live His kind of life without being forever doomed by my early failed attempts. He wants me to live comfortably and happily in His presence for all eternity.
How can He be a fair and just God, and also be a loving and merciful God? If He ignores sins without requiring punishment, He has broken the universal law of absolute justice. He would, therefore, not be a flawless and holy God. He would be changeable, partial, and unpredictable. Therefore, He would not be fit to rule the universe.
Further, we would learn nothing about making correct choices if our actions carried no consequences. We would not grow and develop.
This is where Jesus Christ and His atonement come to the rescue. To make God's plan of salvation work, so that we could make mistakes on earth and still return to live with Him, Someone who deserved no punishment would have to take the punishment for every other person on earth.
Jesus volunteered for that assignment. The only way He could take the punishment for another person was 1) to be sinless Himself, and 2) to be accountable for and accept the guilt of the other person. He had to remove the guilt from the other person and own it Himself. He who had never stolen would have to confess to stealing whatever I stole. He who had never lied would have to admit to telling my lie. He who had never been immoral would have to accept my immorality as His own.
Once Jesus accepted my guilt by proxy, He became worthy of my just punishment, and I was no longer guilty. I could not be convicted of stealing because Jesus took that action on himself. I was free of the stain of guilt. I could stand in God's presence as if I had never stolen because, as far as Jesus was concerned, I was not the thief; He was.
Jesus took my guilt and punishment not just for the candy bar I stole as a child, but for everything I ever did and would yet ever do that separated me from God. And He did that not just for me, but for every human who has ever or will ever be born on this earth.
How could Jesus do such a thing? Because, as God, He is omniscient and omnipotent. He has to be all-knowing because if there was even one thing about me He didn't know, He might have missed one of my sins, and I would still be guilty. And He had to be all-powerful because if He lacked even the slightest bit of power, He might not have been able to endure my punishment, and I would still have to accept that punishment.
Therefore, I believe Christ's atonement is necessary and perfect because:
1) I believe God exists.
2) I believe God is a flawless, unchangeable, unerring, and impartial God who is also loving and merciful.
3) I believe I am created in the image of God with an eternal destiny to live with Him forever.
4) I believe I have the God-given agency to choose to live with Him.
5) I believe I have made many wrong choices that doom me to be separated from God's presence forever.
6) I believe God's plan for my life is for me to learn and grow from my mistakes without being penalized by them forever.
7) I believe Jesus, as God's Son, had the knowledge and the power to take my sins upon Himself and suffer the consequences that should rightfully have fallen to me.
8) I believe Jesus loves God and all of God's children enough to be the Sacrificial Lamb to free us all from our just punishments.
9) I believe Jesus's words recorded in the Bible that He would take upon Himself the sin of the world and the sins of all men.
10) I believe the witnesses in the Bible and elsewhere that Jesus rose from the dead as proof of His atoning sacrifice.
Because Jesus died and lives again, I believe that I will live again in God's presence forever.
I choose to believe in Christ's atonement because no other option makes sense to me. Without God and the hope of getting back to Him, nothing in this earthly life has any real meaning. Without the hope of joy, suffering is pointless, and life is meaningless. Without victory, there is no life, only death. I choose to believe that there is more to life than death, and I can choose life because of Jesus Christ.
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