Why must Jesus die as a man? He is God. He is the Word and Creator of all things and has the power to sweep off all mankind and recreate mankind by His word and yet He chose to die as man.
The very reason that Christ became a man was so that He could die! Let’s look at John 1:1 and 14, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” Let’s also read 1 Timothy 3:16, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” So, without a doubt, God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, took on flesh and blood and became a man without ceasing to be God. He was fully God and fully man.
He became a man so that He could offer Himself to God as payment of our sin debt. In Hebrews 10:1-4 we read, “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. FOR IT IS NOT POSSIBLE THAT THE BLOOK OF BULLS AND GOATS SHOULD TAKE AWAY SINS.” Here, we learn that all the sacrifices of bulls and goats in the Old Testament sacrifices could not take away even one sin. The offerings served to remind the people of their sins. They were never meant to take away sins.
Hebrews 10:5 tells us about the Lord Jesus. “Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me.” It took more that the blood of bulls and goats to put away sin. It took the body and blood of the Lord Jesus, offered to God on our behalf to remove our sins. Verse 10 tells us, “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” While probably millions of animals were sacrificed under the Law, it took the ONE offering of the body of Jesus Christ to save ALL who would come to Him by faith. Verse 14 says, “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” What incredible value the Lord found in the death of His Son. The sacrifice of Himself is sufficient to save every man, women, and child ever born. We learn in 1 Peter 2:24 that it was Christ, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”
The Lord Jesus became a man so that He would have a body and blood to give in perfect sacrifice for sinful people…and we have ALL sinned. John 4:24 tells us that “God is a spirit.” A spirit has no body. A spirit has no blood. So, the Lord was born of a virgin in Bethlehem so that He would have a body and blood that He might give for our sakes. He was the ONE and ONLY sacrifice acceptable to God to remove our sins and make us fit to live with Him in Glory.
The Lord loves His creatures. He doesn’t want to “sweep off all mankind and recreate mankind.” His desire is for “…all men every where to repent” (Acts 17:30) and believe in Him. He wants to redeem us all from our sin. Why? Simply because God is love and He loves us. The Apostle Paul made an astounding statement in Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” He could boldly state that Jesus loved Him and because of that love, He gave Himself a sacrifice for sin. “Hallelujah. What a savior!” (390.6)