What is the significance of Christ dying on the cross?

The cross has always signified death. In ancient times, the cross was used as a means of execution for criminals. It was a way of torturing a person by inflicting the severest pain, and causing them to feel the deepest shame. The convicted person was first physically punished by being beaten and whipped. He was then crucified on a cross, where he was left to die a slow and painful death usually from suffocation. That's why Jesus’ dying on the cross for our sins is so amazing. He offered Himself to be crucified for the sins of the whole world. He died on the cross so we wouldn't have to. Being born into sin, already guilty, it should have been us up there on the cross. It was an unworthy exchange: our guilty lives, for His guiltless one, yet God did it because He loves us. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends” (John 15:13). And so now, we are made free from spiritual death having “…no condemnation in Christ” (Romans 8:1).