A: Dear Rianna,

The reason Jesus died is very simple. When God created us (He actually started with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden), He intended for us to live forever. The only way this would have been possible is if Adam and Eve had remained connected to God, the source of life (John 1:4 - "In him was life, and that life was the light of men." ). Sadly Adam and Eve chose to sin and when they did they disconnected themselves from God which meant that they would eventually die (Romans 6:23 - "For the reward of sin is death"). It’s like when you unplug a laptop, it might work for an hour or two until the battery runs out of power, then it quits; unless you plug it back in.

God still loves us and still wants us to live forever so he figured out a way to reconnect us with Himself. He allowed His Son Jesus who was fully God to come down to this world and become a human being (John 1:14; 1 Timothy 3:16). Then Jesus lived a perfect life (Hebrews 4:15); but not by using His divine power which He still had, but by depending on His Father in Heaven (John 5:30, 12:49). He did this to prove that we could also live perfect lives by depending on our Father in heaven. Then Jesus died to pay the penalty for sin (1 Corinthians 15:3), but what is special about His death is that because He was God (an uncreated being) and because He was perfect, He can take the place of all people in the judgment and give us the life that He always had (eternal life) in exchange for the death that we deserve because we are all sinners.

The best part though is that after Jesus died He was resurrected from the dead. This assures us that we too will be live forever with Him (Romans 6:1-8).