I've been thinking on this recently and came up with the following (which I do not know if others have said before me).
If God wanted to break the Covenant of Genesis 12 and Genesis 15:9-18, to bring in the new Covenant of Jeremiah 31:31-34, he had to pay the price of breaking a covenant and die (as it says, about the price of breaking a covenant, in Jeremiah 34:18-20).
Jesus's death is God paying that price.
Any (polite
) thoughts on this?
You are wandering from the central theme. Maybe you are thinking about how Jesus became a curse for us.
We have to understands that the situation belongs to God and it is God who decides what makes it work.
The process that makes things work in God's plan is illustrated best in Judaism. When something goes wrong, what fixes it is when another creature lays down it's life.
Now, does it really work? If it doesn't work, then why is it done?
The Bible tells us that it doesn't work, at least the way Judaism says it does:
Hebrews 10
1For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. 2Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? 3But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. 4For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
As to why it is done, Christianity explains:
Romans 3
1Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? 2Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God.
Many of the rituals of the Old Covenant do not have moral functions. Israel was to perform them as oracles, prophecies about God's plan, so that humanity would know God would fix things, and be a record so that when salvation came, it would recognise God's work.
One of the categories of laws that was given was the one teaching how sacrifices were to be made. We will see how God's plan to save the world works when we look at different parts of it, first as instructed in the Old Covenant and then it's operation in the New.
Sacrifices were to be offered only in the Tabernacle. That is why the Land is very important for Judaism. Without the Land, Judaism is incomplete. When Joseph and Mary had to offer sacrifice, they had to travel to the Temple.
Leviticus 17
2 “Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the people of Israel and say to them, This is the thing that the LORD has commanded. 3 If any one of the house of Israel kills an ox or a lamb or a goat in the camp, or kills it outside the camp, 4 and does not bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting to offer it as a gift to the LORD in front of the tabernacle of the LORD, bloodguilt shall be imputed to that man. He has shed blood, and that man shall be cut off from among his people.
The revelation to the world was that sacrifice would take away sin when it was made in the Temple. Please remember, this was a type, a foreshadow of a future event.
The operation of this salvation is seen when a believer who is IN Christ, the real Promised Land, makes a sacrifice, picks up his cross.
When Adam was in the Garden, a place where heaven and earth meets, all he did to subdue creation was effective, because he was in union with God, as only the pure can see God.
When he came to know good and evil, he was no longer sinless, so humanity, the Garden, was defiled.
To continue with His plan, God must create a new humanity, one in which man, even if he knew good from evil but could not be perfect in following his spirit, this man could still act in repairing humanity, till it COULD complete creation. This new Man God sent in Christ, the real Promised Land, the true Holy City, the Rest.
Hebrews 11
13All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. 15And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.
There was a possibility at certain times in the narrative, when Israel could have theoretically been Abraham's seed. See this interesting verse:
John 11
50You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish."
The High Priest assumed responsibility for all of Israel at a particular time of the year, on the Day of Atonement. His blood, death, had a special significance:
Zechariah 3
9“I will remove the sin of this land in a single day”.
By dying on the Cross Christ built a New Man, a new Humanity, of which He Himself was the first fruit. By being in Him, we can be unblemished offerings, so that when we pick up a cross, it is an effective sacrifice, an act that really takes away sin, creates treasure in Heaven. For the sake of contemplation, imagine that being in Christ contributes in some way in near and dear ones coming closer to God. God is acting through us…
We are becoming the covenantal faithfulness of God, dikaiosune theou.
2 Corinthians 5
21For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
That's why Christ died.