why Jesus?

Jesus clearly says he is God and a person needs to trust in him for forgiveness of sin. One example from John 8,

24"That is why I said that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am who I say I am, you will die in your sins."

Jesus calls himself, “I am.” The Jews he is speaking to in this situation from John 8 would know Jesus has just declared himself God, as “I am,” is the sacred name God gives himself.

Again, we see to die in your sins is not saying Jesus-followers don’t sin. It is saying there are two types of people in the world. Those who sin and trust in Jesus to take those sins upon himself and those who don’t trust in Jesus to do this.

God is totally just. God is totally pure. He promises that those who are 100% pure will be in his blessed presence forever when he establishes the new creation for good. Anyone who is not 100% pure can’t be in the direct presence of God. They will be separated from God and his blessings forever. A pure God cannot be directly in contact with the impure. A just God cannot say, “Just forget about the sin.” Someone has to pay for justice to occur.

Jesus is the way out. He takes the sin and destroys it. Only those who want the benefit of that destruction (forgiveness) receive it. It isn’t that forgiveness is not offered to everyone. It is. Once and for all time on the cross. It is just that you don’t have to choose to receive it. You can choose to not trust in Jesus. Then when you die, it will be with the results of your sin remaining on you. This will keep you from living with God forever. You won’t want to and he won’t want you to. He won’t want you to do anything you don’t want to do.

Just like in life, you will convince yourself you are right and he is wrong. There is no second chance when you die because you haven’t taken the multitude of chances in this life. After you die it will be no different. Know God or no God. The choice is yours.