Why did Jesus die? 

 Short Answer:

Because God love the world so much that he gave (up) his only son so that everyone who believes in him with have eternal life.

 Long Answer:

God is in eternity Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Father and Son love one another in the Holy Spirit.  God created the world out of nothing with a mere word.  This word was his Son in Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the archetypal creature.  God loves the world because he loves his Son who is in the world.  God planned the world around his Son.  And since his Son lived with him eternally by the Spirit, so too was the world to live with God eternally.  Creation was intended for eternal loving communion. This communion is God’s image stamped upon our lives.

Now, this loving communion was a communion of consent, for our God is not a violent nor coercive God.  God makes himself vulnerable, even in his eternal Trinitarian being.  But humans were tempted into violence and coercion of each other and even of God.  The great sagas of Genesis 3-11 tell of this turn away from love to violent coercive control of the Other.  We know now only a world of violence.  Even if we die peacefully, our lives are surely not peaceful.  From the cradle to the grave, we spend our lives trying to control one another.  We fear death, because it is the end of our control.  It defeats us all.  It is the last enemy.

How do we once again have the life for which we were created?  It is by the very word that spoke us into existence.  God will keep his word.  This word was the basis of a promise given to his people Israel. At the appointed time, God lived on earth as the Israelite man Jesus Christ.  Jesus was given all authority, even over the coercive powers of the world.  He set his eyes on the center of authority.  But at the decisive moment, he told his followers to lay down their weapons.  He did not try to coerce his enemies.  He loved them instead.  He chose to be defeated.  He was nailed to a cross.  In all this, he confirmed his divinity.  Yet he died. What then?  Is God dead?  Why did he not use his power to save himself, and us?

God in Jesus Christ stayed true to himself to the end.  But the end was not the end after-all.  For by the power of the Holy Spirit Jesus Christ was raised from the dead.  Although his perfect human life of love ended violently, he now lives again eternally with God.  Since he was the very word of God, he was able to defeat death. And since he was God's word and the archetypal human, he lived and died and rose again in our place.  Only the creative word in human flesh could do this for us and not just for himself.  We have died and our life is hid with Christ in God.  We are once again in communion with God because this one man is in communion with God.  He is our righteousness and our life.  He is the head and we are his body.  And we are connected to him by the Holy Spirit, who he has poured on all who believe in Christ's name. 

This communion is hidden in God's future.  It will some day be revealed fully.  In the meantime, as Christ's body we are freed from violent force and control the other. We are free to love others as Christ loved us.  By this life of faith and hope and love we participate in and witness to the love of God for the world in his Son Jesus Christ.