I came across your question and was deeply inspired to respond. As it is with me, a person of much contemplation, my answer is long. I ask that you excuse the length to my desire for being thorough. To be helpful, I have divided this text into sections as follows: 

***Introduction​

1. The Gospel: Debt Forgiveness & Stimulus Plan

2. Debt/Sin Forgiveness: Incomplete, Without Blood

*** Side Note: The Wages of Sin is Death [Romans 6:23]

3. Debt/Sin Forgiveness: Scales Favored to Our Advantage

4. Debt/Sin Forgiveness: Submitting to Continual Death to Find Life More Abundantly

5. Debt/Sin Forgiveness: Where Human Sacrifice was Required, Jesus Chose It for Himself

6. Debt/Sin Forgiveness: Empowering Grace

7. Summary

8. The Stimulus Plan

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It is duly noted that the average attention span trends low. So your consideration of this text is appreciated. As a helpful tip, you will find a sufficient response to your question by reading the highlighted sections. Meanwhile, reading all of the text will offer more perspective. The introduction below was added to briefly share how "curiosity" has been a constant guide in my journey of ever-increasing understanding. I celebrate question-asking, and value the privileged responsibility to address your question here, which I will do as best as I can, as a disciple of Jesus-Christ. I applaud your curiosity. 

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In all your getting, get understanding. 

[Proverbs 4:7]​

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*** Introduction

Years ago, I was meditating on John 3:16 during prayer:

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God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,

that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

[John 3:16]

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Understanding that Jesus was given to us through the cross of his death (and by his resurrection), I found myself exploring God's way of doing things. I engaged God with the observation: if you were looking to purchase a gift for me and asked me what I want, I would never respond "the death of Jesus, the death of the Son of God." Not only is that gruesome, but I would see no value, delight, or pleasure in it. Plus it would be a waste to ask the Creator of all for such a thing, when I could request the desires of my imagination--travel spots, an endless trust fund, an orphanage, a couple of cars to own and give away, as well as the end to wars, hunger, and pain etc. I sat there in meditation and recalled the scriptures again:

 

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,

that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

[John 3:16]

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And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true

God [Yahweh], and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

[John 17:3]

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From these verses, I perceived God attaching ggrrreaat value to his Son, and to himself. As I read "God **so** loved the world that He gave," I noticed what was being implied--the gift of Jesus here is presented as the highest expression of God's love. I understood that this gift was least of all aiming simply for my pleasures (though so much pleasure is gained as a byproduct). And ultimately, I perceived what great weight was this love gift, intended by God to work against my destruction, and offered up to save and sustain my life.

 

Now, keep in mind, "my life" was a life that I didn't even want to live. I had vacillated for years about the worthwhile-ness of living. I was passively suicidal. I knew I would never hurt myself, but I thought about death often. In light of my unresolved confusion, hurts, and pain, coupled with what I perceived of the world, I took that sample of observed data and projected it out into a future yet lived. Quiet frankly, I didn't want to be here. I would often send God requests to opt-out of earthly living, and join him on the other side. As I came across heart-opening pieces of understanding that lightened the burdens I was carrying, my appetite for understanding increased and curiosity led to way.  How foolish was I to act on the projections and expectations established by a created being (here, myself). I am limited and dependent: knowing nothing unless taught, quite weak unless strengthened, hungry until fed, naked unless clothed, and poor until labors yield its fruit in resources, etc.

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 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.

[Revelations 3:17]

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For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

[1 Corinthians 4:7]

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Your question is born of a curiosity that I have entertained in my mind and heart many times over, only to find myself immensely grateful for the inheritance of understanding that the Lord gives me (many times over). To be clear, it is **your curiosity about Jesus** that I applaud--Jesus Christ of Nazareth, self-professed "Son of God," calling himself "the Way, the Truth, the Life" amongst other revelatory names and titles disclosing the majesty behind the man. I applaud your curiosity about a person, whose reputation, renown and fame has been the flame that is yet to fade. Instead, his name furiously endures and spreads throughout the world, across the generations--honorably so (we trust and pray), though by falsehood at times. 

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For this, for the object of your curiosity, I commend you Sir in investing the slightest interest for understanding.

 

It is reasonable service indeed, given our conventional responses to phenomenon such as celebrity, politics, the magician, witch, and the wealthy. The way some of us ignore such an intriguing historical figure is quiet perplexing (though many reasons and explanations exist to that point). To casually and consistently dismiss this undeniable personage who shows up in every corner of society and culture, should only be written off to complete ignorance of his existence or to the inspiration of falsehoods about him, which then deter people from exploring an inch of the matter.

 

Fortunately for these cases, God's plan to save and make whole is not thwarted. Disciples of Christ are called to engage others out of darkness into the saving knowledge of Jesus by instructions of love, faith, truth, wisdom and courage, delegated to the disciple found ever yielding (1) to scriptural revelation of Jesus, and (2) to the spiritual power of prayer.  We rejoice because his grace is formidable to save from diverse seeming obstacles (my bias is unashamedly noted!). Such is the greatness of his love!

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...If you will, let us now move onwards to the write-up below. In the text following, I will attempt to share what I have learned through the years as I found myself prayerfully pursuing wisdom and understanding about Jesus, and all that he represents for us/me. The focus of my response is bounded by your question. Wherever it may seem that I'm going off tangent, I trust that it will serve to build context around the focus at hand "why did the Son of God sacrifice himself." I’m not sure how familiar you are with the Gospel (Good News) of Jesus Christ, and his plan for the salvation of man--so let’s briefly start there.

 

1. The Gospel: Debt Forgiveness & Stimulus Plan

A good way to think about the Gospel, is by alluding to President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act instituted in Feb 2009. The act endeavored towards two goals which became known as the Debt Forgiveness and the Stimulus Plan. In short, the former released American companies/organizations from financial debts; and the latter looked to jumpstart/boost those same entities through the investment of governmental funds and thru measures for industry efficiencies. This two part approach (Debt Forgiveness, Stimulus Plan) is at the heart of Christ’s salvation plan.

 

2. Debt/Sin Forgiveness: Incomplete, Without Blood

In your question, I perceive that you are addressing God's Debt Forgiveness plan for humanity’s sins. If I understand you correctly, you essentially are asking, since God created all things by the word of his power—such that when he says a thing, it is so [Genesis 1]—why did the Son of God, who is God, choose to forgive sin by sacrificing himself as opposed to simply forgiving sin by the authority of his word. One thing to explore here is that “without the shedding of blood there is no remission (forgiveness) of sins” [Hebrews 9:22].

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*** Side Note: The Wages of Sin is Death [Romans 6:23]

As a brief side note: scripture reminds us that “the wages of sin is death” [Romans 6:23]. So when we sin, sin earns for us the consequence of death in all of its forms; death and destruction starts to show up in our lives in the death of joy, the death of hope, the death of relationships, death of health, the death of wisdom. Sin is the product of sin-nature, the product of our flesh; and when we sin we are *of* sin-nature. Now because God has never been and will never be sin-nature/flesh/carnal (he is 100% spirit and holiness); then to be "in sin" is to be in something that is categorically in enmity with God's nature. Said another way “to sin,” is to be in sin-nature, and sin-nature is separation from God's spirit.

 

The blood of bulls and goats of the Old Testament (through the law given by Moses) was a means by which God received the administration of animal sacrifice as an “acceptable” means to deal with sin in that moment. If sin was not addressed through the law of animal sacrifice, the people's sin would prevent God’s presence from remaining in their midst—and Sir, what is man without his Source (?!). However, keep in mind that the blood of bulls and goats, etc. was never a sufficient response to the sins of men because it didn’t change man’s heart. The Lord promises in Ezekiel 36:26—I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. As such, Jesus presented himself to become the blood that would be the remission of our sins. He offered the blood that would constitute the once and final sacrifice, his body being the necessary (a requirement) and sufficient (the *only* requirement) response to man’s dilemma with sin [Hebrews 7:23-28; Hebrews 10:10-18]. Through the death of his body, he released the blood that saves unto a new heart and a new life, for it is written "the life of every creature is in its blood" [Leviticus 17:14].

 

3. Debt/Sin Forgiveness: Scales Favored to Our Advantage

...So Jesus was/is our Debt Forgiveness plan (halleluiah!), and a perfect one indeed because he was the exact “currency” that was needed to pay off our sin-debts. You see, Jesus presents himself in scripture as the “Son of God” AND the “Son of Man.” In the spirit, Christ-Jesus is 100% God and in his body he is 100% man. Jesus as the Son of God became the high priest who offered his own body (born in the likeness of man) to the crucifixion in order to complete salvation’s plan and to take away the sins of the world.

 

To deliver *man* from sin, God offered himself in the garment of *man*, which he did by sending Jesus. God carried out salvation plan by honoring the dictates and laws which he established to govern creation, at the foundation of the world. Therefore, the plan to deliver humanity from sin-nature through the death/blood of the man, Jesus, aligns with the kind-for-kind sacrificial offering which God had sovereignly determined to be necessary/sufficient to the work of salvation. Through a conviction of the heart, administered by God's grace, each soul is invited to appropriate the reality of salvation by faith:

 

1. we acknowledge our sins (which originated from our body's disordered desires) and proclaim/appropriate the reality of our "death to sin" by the proxy offered with the  death of the body of Christ (kind-for-kind); 

2. and by faith we receive the gift of righteousness (right-standing with God).

 

For He [God] made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

2 Corinthians 5:21

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The shedding of blood by Jesus was not just to forgive sins and reduce our liabilities to a -0- balance, but his blood was additional offered to engage a divine exchange by which Jesus endows us with the inheritance of his person/nature through the gift of his spirit inside of us. The inheritance of his spirit avails us to great advantage, inclusive of all benefits  appertaining to Jesus as revealed in scripture... which are then received and set into operative motion by the believer/disciple as they steward a life of faith built upon Godly expectation and pursuant to those promised benefits. By Christ's blood, we are presented with the opportunity to become new creation (with a new heart), sons and daughters born [again] of the spirit of God:

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But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

[John 1:12-13].

 

4. Debt/Sin Forgiveness: Submitting to Continual Death to Find Life More Abundantly 

Indeed Romans 8:17 reads "Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory" (amen!). Yes! The inheritance of his spirit is the starter seed unto glory, a valuable, worthwhile, meaningful life to the extent that we continually exercise the death of life-as-we-intend-it and choose to receive the life-unveiled-from-trust-in-God (his will, words, ways, and works)--a trust evidenced by our engagement with life-affirming graces--the study/meditation of scripture, obedience, forgiveness, the practice of prayer, repentance from sin, faith towards God, fellowship, thanksgiving/praise, communion, etc. By this suffering, by not clinging to life when faced and confronted with death-to-our-perceived-self-interest; by choosing this spiritual endurance, through all milestones of our journey (the tragedies, comedies, uncertainties; thru the grief in our house, yet the party next door)...by this suffering we are indeed greatly blessed. For with death set as the end of man, what great testimony of that man who comes to the end of himself with every choosing of Christ over himself.

 

For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

[Matthew 16:25]

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Yes! To die over and over again, only to *find life* on the other side is to abide in the testimony of Christ-resurrection "death where is your sting (?!)" For these ones, a God-certified overflow of life sustains them; nothing missing, nothing lacking, nothing wanting--all is more than enough unto matters of life and godliness. As we suffer (endure) through denial-of-self, we share in the glory of Christ's exaltation. As you can see, Christ's forgiveness of our sins went beyond a declaration or decree from his lips. The sacrifice, the death of Jesus, is integral to the generation of God-life on the earth, the generation of people operating in spirit-nature and not sin-nature. Death-to-self continues to be a foundational exercise of faith in Christ, even in the days/years following the initial salvation of the believer. By faith, we declare that the death of our bodies (with its disordered desires) is actualized through the proxy of Christ's body (which actually *did*, for a moment, submit to the grave on our behalf). By this faith, the breaking of our bodies through death, opens up that precious aforementioned starter seed unto increase, growth, and multiplication of God-glory and -significance. 

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"Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds."

[John 12:24]

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By continually choosing death-to-self-interest, we activate "life more abundantly" in a world that is trapped by a "way that *seems right* to man, but leads to destruction"[Proverbs 14:12].

 

5. Debt/Sin Forgiveness: Where Human Sacrifice was Required, Jesus Chose It for Himself

As I come to a close, let us return to your question. God created us/humanity to require blood for the remission/forgiveness of our sins, and Jesus provided his own sin-less blood which not only dealt with our sin-activities, but also dealt with the root cause of sin-nature. For those of us (and any of us) who put our faith in the gift of the cross, the altar of Christ’s sacrifice…unto us has salvation come! Indeed “[…] we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” [Hebrews 10:10].

 

I celebrate the fact that in your question you asked “…must He *sacrifice* Himself…” Many of us, in our ignorance, believe that he was killed by enemies. However, yes, it was truly a sacrifice; a practice known throughout the generations and kingdoms of race and creed across time, administered to false gods for ill-intent, with humans unfortunately used as the element of sacrifice. In the story of Abraham and Isaac [Genesis 22:1-19], God is testing Abraham’s faith (sure!); however we often miss the fact that God is proclaiming his nature. That is, he stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac to underline that he is not like the god(s) of Abraham’s fathers who received human sacrifice. He is the God who will instead supply himself on the altar, through his son Jesus-Christ (halleluiah!), and for the benefit of his own creation (amen!).

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6. Debt/Sin Forgiveness: Empowering Grace

Here's another question to consider: after salvation, don’t we still sin? What great act on the cross, to only be minimized my more sin after salvation. Yes, we do sin, and scripture adds “if we say we have not sinned, we make [God] a liar […]” (1 John 1:10). Yes, after salvation we may still sin in thought, in speech, in deeds; we sin in what we commit and omit, in our doing and in our failing to do.

 

And still, looking to Jesus, we rejoice, “for by one sacrifice, [Jesus] has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” [Hebrews 10:14]. Essentially, we are now rooted in the heart of Father-God, in the spirit-nature of God (rather than sin-nature), and in this perfection we have hope/expectation to mature in holiness, empowered by righteousness—the rightness of thought, speech, deeds—by the help and power of God’s Holy Spirit inside of us. Yes, salvation has come to us!...through the sacrificial blood of Jesus Christ.

 

7. Summary

Why did Jesus not just forgive sins by the word of his power, because his sacrifice was/is necessary and critical to salvation’s plan! The wages of sin is *still* death. God’s law has not been changed by Jesus, but fulfilled by him (on behalf of all humanity, each soul). However, now when we sin, we “plead the blood of Jesus.” In other words,

 

- we point to the death that Jesus died for our sins and

- we remember “the death that I earned by sinning, has been paid” and

- we appropriate the grace of resurrection life through his spirit,

- by co-operating with the spirit-activated stirring of righteousness/ability/power (we co-operate by the graces of scripture study, obedience, prayer, thanksgiving and praise, repentance, faith, fellowship, communion, etc) 

- that enables us to live as sons and daughters of God in the image/likeness of his spirit-nature (and not by the sin-nature of flesh).

- Amen!

 

8. The Stimulus Plan 

For this and so much more, we choose Christ and the cross! As for us and our households and we will serve the Lord. We do receive the “rivers of living water” by which an active and continuous flow of Christ-life sustains us, by his spirit, in our new nature. In fact, it is the inheritance of the Holy Spirit within those who are saved, which constitutes the foundation of the Gospel’s Stimulus Plan.

 

Now, I’m cognizant that I’ve given you a lot to consider already through this extensive response. I don’t want to overwhelm you with a Part 2 at this moment to disclose the strategic beauty of God's Stimulus Plan; but do know that it is an immense joy to apprehend.

 

If you have any questions to that regard; please feel free to engage with disciples of Jesus-Christ as you have done here, or even engage prayerfully to our Lord Jesus-Christ with your questions, concerns, and reservations. We rejoice because we know our Lord does not refuse a heart looking to know him and understand his ways. I hope this written presentation has been helpful to you Sir. Thank you for your consideration. 

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Blessings!

Kapinga Marie-Christelle T.​​​​​