Obviously it was a "sacrifice". Any sacrifice is done through the death of someone, necessarily.
Since the whole deal was conceived from eternity by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit it was a completely "private deal" between them. In such drama ee are almost nothing but just the knife.
The Killer: The Father
The Killed: The Son.
The Blade: We (Man as such, not Romans or Jews or Herodes, etc.)

It would not have been different if the action woudl have been like this:

"Then, Jesus climbed to a Mountain and jumped from the top and got killed. And, by this sacrifice – self inmolation – got, etc. etc."

Then, we would say "Jesus was killed by the force of gravity, by Earth itself (playing here the role of the Jews).

But the important question that Christian do not dare to ask themselves is : Why is necessary to kill violently an innocent to re establish the order of things once a sin is committed?

How is possible that Christians rely so happily on the monstruous and nasty institution of the scape goat?

Because it is a win-win deal for them, sinners. Someone would take the pain and horror and death and get me released from my sins. Nice deal, isn´t it?