Why did Christ have to suffer DEATH?

Because the righteousness and truth of God are such that nothing else could make reparation for our sins except the death of the Son of God.

Why was He BURIED?

To confirm the fact that He was really dead.

Since, then, Christ died for us, why must we also die?

Our death is not a reparation for our sins, but only a dying to sin and an entering into eternal life.

I. Sin Produces Death

A. Death is the normal consequence of sin. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

B. The incarnation and crucifixion of Jesus were directly related to the need to deal with death. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. (Hebrews 2:9)

C. The spoilage from sin invalidated any ordinary human attempt to set things right between God and man. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:3-4)

II. The Death of Jesus Is Beyond Legitimate Dispute

A. The crucifixion and burial confirm the technical reality of Jesus= execution. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulcher. (Acts 13:29)

B. The details of the burial are precise, appropriate to the times and conditions, and evidence that those engaged in the burial were convinced Jesus was genuinely dead. And when Joseph bad taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher, and departed. (Matthew 27:59-60)

C. Picture the details in Luke's account. And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counsellor; and he was a good man, and a just: (The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;) he was of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of God. This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulcher that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid. And that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on. And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulcher, and how his body was laid. (Luke 23:50-55)

D. John further confirms the other accounts. And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus. And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulcher, wherein was never man yet laid. There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulcher was nigh at hand. (John 19:38-42)

II. The Believer=s Death Focuses on Transition

A. Our deaths do not settle accounts for sin. 0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Romans 7:24)

1. Believers do not have in them what it takes to overcome sin and its consequences. A SONG OF DEGREES. Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, 0 LORD. Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, 0 Lord, who shall stand? (Psalm 130:1-3)

2. Coming to terms with frailty and inadequacy are actually in the believer's best interest according to Jesus. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled. (Matthew 5: 4-6)

B. We do not have the capacity to ransom  ourselves or secure life for ourselves. None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor  give to God a ransom for him: (Psalm 49:7)

C. The substitutionary death of Jesus reaches a more fundamental level than a simple physical status shift. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. (1 Thessalonians 5:9-10)