Did Jesus Really Have To Die... Really?

Before I surrendered my life to Christ, I sometimes wondered why He had to die. After all, He is the Son of God (although, at the time I really had no idea at all what that meant). I wanted to know why Jesus could not have just entered the world, lived a remarkable life as an example to the rest of us, and then just said something like, "Do your best to follow My example; LOVE, LOVE, LOVE." And then zoom, back to heaven! Why did He have to die? That always confused me. Well, shortly after I turned twenty-six years of age, I learned the answer to that haunting question, and it is a very good one indeed.