Everything has consequence.
Yes but who set the rule that the wages of sin are death? Was it not God?
It is reasonable that if you choose to be with God you will in fact be with God and if you choose to walk away from God you will in fact have walked away from God. For these not to be the case would be plainly absurd.
Nothing in the above implies you have to die for choosing not to be with God though. Who made the rule that you have to be punished for walking way from God? Was it not God?
The wages of Adam's sin certainly. There are biblical statements that if you reject God you will die in your OWN sins. There are christians who believe that Jesus death is only effective for those who choose the entry Christ has opened for them. What is certain is that if you walk away you are in fact walking away
Is that a long winded way of admitting that God
did make the rule that dying and then coming alive again is enough to pay the wages of sin? Why could he not make a rule that involves not dying at all? Or, if killing himself in the form of his son and bringing himself back to life works, why not just kill everybody and bring them all back to life?
There is a cost. The cost being alienation from God
I'm already alienated from God (assuming he exists). I can tell you right now that it isn't really much of a punishment.
The thing is (in case you haven't twigged already) that all of these rules you are quoting - "the wages of sin are death", "the price has to be paid" etc - were set in place by your god (assuming he exists). In that light, pretty much everything to do with Jesus' "perfect" not-really-a-sacrifice looks stupid.
Notwithstanding the fact that it's totally bonkers that other people can step in and take the punishment for crimes I have done, the idea that I can take back my "payment" after a few days is complete nonsense. If the government allowed you to pay your speeding fine but then, after three days, gave you the money back and rescinded the points, you'd just laugh at them for being utterly stupid. This is the eact situation we have with Jesus' crucifixion.