Wasn't His death just an example of love?

The short answer Settled

It was more than that. Christ died in the sinner's place. The sins were laid on Him, He carried them in His own body, and He died for them, the just for the unjust.

What Isaiah saw

Isaiah wrote of one who would suffer for the sins of others: "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5). The transgressions are "ours." The wounds are "His."

Then he says who went astray, and who carried it: "All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6). The wrong belongs to all. It is laid on one.

Peter names Him

Peter takes Isaiah's words and applies them to Jesus. Christ "Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree," he writes, and he ends with Isaiah's own phrase: "by whose stripes you were healed" (1 Peter 2:24). The one Isaiah described is Jesus.

Peter adds, "Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18). The one who suffered was just. The sins belonged to the unjust.

Paul says it in a single verse: "He 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). Christ had no sin of His own. What belonged to the sinner was put on Him, and the righteousness of God, which did not belong to the sinner, is what he becomes in Christ.

A ransom in place of many

Jesus said why He came: "to give His life a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28). A ransom is a price paid to set someone free. The word translated for is antiGreekἀντὶantiinstead of473 · Preposition, "instead of." Matthew uses it of Archelaus, who "was reigning over Judea instead of his father Herod" (Matthew 2:22): he held the place Herod had held. Jesus gave His life in the place of the many.

The usual objection

Many people hold that Christ's death was an example: of love, or of faithfulness to the end, the way a martyr dies for what he believes. It helps people by moving them to turn to God. On that view, "Christ died for us" means only that His death was meant to help. No one's sins were put on Him, and He did not die in anyone's place.

His death does show love (see Couldn't God simply forgive?). But an example needs no one's sins laid on the one who dies, and that is exactly what these passages say happened. The LORD laid the iniquity of all on Him; He bore sins in His own body; God made Him sin. A friend who pays your speeding fine has not set you an example of paying fines. He has paid yours. That is dying in someone's place, not only dying to help.

The words behind it