To many people, the short earthly life of Jesus seems strange. If his teaching was so good, surely he would have had a greater effect if he had stayed around for another 30 or 40 years, rather than being killed off in his early thirties. However, that is not the perspective of the writers of the New Testament. For them, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus had a greater significance, as exemplified by what Paul said in the second chapter of his first letter to Timothy:
There is one God, and one mediator between God and humans, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom on behalf of everyone. He was the message whose time had come, and I was chosen as a messenger and an apostle — I am telling the truth; I am not lying — a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
According to the writers of the New Testament, Jesus did not live his life for himself; he lived and died for others. When he died on the cross, he did not die as punishment for his own sins, because he had lived a sinless life; he died to pay the price, which Paul refers to as the “ransom” for the sins of others, so that anyone who believes in him can be reconciled to God through Jesus who is the mediator between God and humans.