In order to appreciate why Jesus died on the cross, we need to know a bit of the background to why He did this for us. So we will begin with the bad news before we go on to the good news.

Everyone is guilty before God of wrong deeds (sin)
Right at the beginning mankind chose to live his own way rather than God’s. From that time on every human born has inherited a nature which at times rebels against God’s moral standards. As an example of God’s moral standards and to see how  far we have missed the mark we can look at the ten commandments God gave to the Israelites at Mount Sinai. It only takes a single breaking of just one of God’s laws for us to become lawbreakers:

‘For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all’- James chapter 2, verse 10.

It is when God reveals His standards to us that we realise just how far we all fall short:

‘For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard’- Romans chapter 3, verse 23 (New Living Translation)

‘If we say we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and refusing to accept the truth’- 1John chapter 1, verse 8 (NLT)

There is a consequence to sin
Death came into the world when mankind committed the first sin. There will be a day of judgement when we will all stand before God and be called to give account for our lives. At this time God will punish every act of wrongdoing. Hell is a real place where God’s anger against sin is displayed. The Bible says no one will by their own effort be able to live a good enough life to avoid coming under God’s judgement- we are all guilty before Him.

‘Remember, each one of us will stand personally before the judgement seat of God. For the Scriptures say, ‘As surely as I live,’, says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow to me and every tongue will confess allegiance to God’ Yes, each one of us will have to give a personal account to God’- Romans chapter 14, verses 10 to 12 (NLT)

‘For the wages of sin is death’- Romans chapter 6, verse 23 (first part) (NLT)