Why did Jesus have to die?

More importantly, why did he have to shed blood? Die, die la. Must it be a bloody crucification?

I asked myself that question when i was thinking about animal sacrifices during the Old Testament period and started doing research on it. But before I dive into the main topic, let's all start with the basic questions surrounding Jesus and his death.

Who is Jesus?

Jesus is 100% God and 100% man. He is God in a human form.

Why did God have to appear in human form?

God had to appear in human form because God alone is sinless and therefore only His sacrifice can atone for our sins.

To understand this, we need to understand the Christian concept of sin. God is holy and cannot tolerate sin. Therefore, sin separates us from God. The consequence of sin is eternal spiritual death (aka hell). Without the connection to God, we are considered to be spiritually dead. In formula terms:

Sinfulness = disconnected from God = spiritual death.

So in order to have be spiritually alive, we need to revert the formula/make atonements for it.

Spiritually alive = connected to God = Sinless

To be spiritually alive, mankind needs to be sinless. But we are not because Adam & Eve had sinned. So we either face the consequences of sin (eternal spiritual death/separation from God) ourselves or find someone who is sinless to atone for us. And who is sinless except God? Nobody. Therefore only He can die and make atonements for our sins. But how does God, an immortal, die?

This is why God had to appear in human form. Only then can He die and sacrifice His life for us.

Why must there be shedding of blood?

Even before Jesus, animals were offered up as blood sacrifice during the Old Testament time. And this is where everything started for me. I questioned the necessity for a blood sacrifice. Why blood? Why? I went online to check and it is because...

Blood is the essence and symbol of life in the bible (and in reality too).

For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.” Leviticus 17:11

Blood represents life which is needed to make atonement. Therefore the shedding of blood is of extreme significance in the sacrificial system. Without blood, there is no atonement, no forgiveness (Hebrews 9:22).

Animal sacrifices

This is the reason why animal sacrifices were required before the coming of Christ. They were temporary atonements for sins and also acted as a reminder to the Israelites about the severity of their sinfulness. Animal sacrifices had to be done yearly and even after that, only the priests could enter the Holiest of the Holies to come into God's presence. But Jesus is sinless and hence is the perfect sacrifice.

Therefore Jesus came. And his blood was shed.

For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
1 Corinthians 15:21 

And thus we are made righteous, justified by the blood of Christ. No longer is the shedding of blood needed just for us to come close to God. It is done, once and for all. The Holy Communion now serves as our reminder of our sins and God's sacrifice for us. Animals sacrifices are henceforth redundant :)

Ok, I am supposed to stop here but i thought i would throw in my thoughts on tattoos. I swear it is related as you will see.

Can Christians get tattoos?

I have always wanted tattoos. I even have a curation of tattoo photos on pinterest haha. I wanted 7 tattoos and even planned their positions and designs. But HY and I used to get into countless heated arguments on whether tattoos are biblical or not. He would throw me Leviticus verses about how we shouldn't harm or pierce our bodies and how it is occult in nature and i'd be like EXCUSE ME? Not like I'm going to get some weird tattoos?! There are also laws in Leviticus that we don't necessarily follow now what. So no matter how many times he tried to convince me i could never reconcile why tattoos are supposedly unbiblical. I mean, there are pretty good arguments on both sides of the tables (watch) and i can't be persuaded either way although i was inclining towards yay for tattoos. So yeah it was a bad topic for both of us because we kept on arguing. Until he asked me this question:

"Would you rather take the risk and disappoint God or go ahead and get it even though you're unsure?"

Out of all the advices he had given me in so many areas of my life, that is the one sentence i would never forget. Maybe to some of you it sounds like he was trying to guilt-trip me - but i know he wasn't. Because I would rather give up tattoos than to risk finding out i had 'accidentally' disobeyed Him. I mean, it is just tattoos... right?

And so, i let go of that dream of mine with much difficulty. Obviously there were times i found myself sighing as i play with the thought of tattoos in my mind because it is hard to give up on something you desire badly when you don't fully understand why you should be doing so. But i could not bear to choose anything else over God so i kept resisting it.

But i found my grounding reason after doing research for this post (which was first written close to 2 years ago. Hahaha, eh i don't anyhow post bible stuff ok? I really think through and try my best to be responsible for my words). I don't know about needles and piercings and all but now i do know how important and valuable blood is and what it signifies. So i guess I'm ok with piercings as long as they do not involve blood (infections not counted).

DISCLAIMER
The above was a sharing on my opinions and learnings of a topic in the bible. The content should not be taken wholesale. I would recommend you to conduct your own study too because I do not claim to have complete expertise on this subject although this post was written with the best of my research and knowledge as of date. I vouch that my sharing is not of a fickle-minded nature because i take the studying and preaching of Word seriously. However, it is subjected to further changes because learning is a lifelong process and i may get new insights. My ultimate aim is to inform and whet your appetite to study the bible more so if you think any of my explanations lacking, that's great! Find the answers and we can have a discussion to strengthen our bible knowledge bank ;)