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See, Jesus dying gave birth to the new testament. The old testament described a god that was much more angry and vengeful. It demanded far more sacrifice of people and this is why prostitutes were stoned, along with homosexuals and anyone else deemed to be a sinner.
I would guess that the new testament was required to provide those rebelling from the old testament (hence Judaism) a means of collection and war. It provided those that dissagreed with the harshness of Judaism a group structure, a faith to follow. And they used Jesus as the idol because the event of his crucification was a powerful tool of inspiration.
I think initially it was probably used to entice people to be strong enough to stand for what they believe in, because he did as well. But over time as the need for rebellion stopped and Christians had communities of their own they needed another hook to keep people believing.
I would say this is when it changed from Jesus dying for righteousness and that being a source of hope to Jesus dying for us and a source of guilt.
Imagine communities that sprung up and existed as Christians that no longer needed strength in rebellion. The need for Christianity would become less and less. People would require hope in face of oppression less and less. And so the only way to keep the faith going strong was to keep the people feel oppressed.
If not from outsiders, then from the religion itself. So in keeping Christians oppressed by guilt, or a debt, they then were constantly in need of "rebelling in fear" against those that sought to keep them in sin.
See, what Christianity does with its debt + duties is it makes every Christian look at a non-Christian or failed Christian as someone "oppressing" them, because they are born in bondage and in converting or punishing a non-Christian they free themselves of the bondage.... whereas the bondage itself is sourced from the beliefs, not witches or pagans or homosexuals.
So jesus dying for us provides the guilt to perform the duties of the Church, and the Church provides the people with a means of freeing themselves from this guilt with those duties. Without the guilt, people would not feel the drive to do the Church's biddings and in fact begin to question the validity.
A good example of this is the crusades... many people who ran to Jerusalem and slaughtered Muslim and jewish women and children didn't do it out of malice or cruelty... they were told the blood of sinners would wash away their sins. Whether this be true by the bible or not, it is an example of the Church fueling this guilt into a horrific political goal.
Understanding what effect Jesus dying for our sins has on Christians is a crucial part of determining why they have done what they do, and how dangerous of a tool it is to have people living in fear.
"Hating everyone protects me from elitism."
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