All of us have used our wisdom and ignored God's wisdom, and as a result chosen sin. So we were all under the sentence of death and separation from God according to the word to Adam: In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Perhaps this means that from the day you eat of this tree your death is certain.
Note that this law only refers to death, not to punishments after death, which, although they occur for some, are not the subject of this law for all who sin. However, it seems that this law prevents sinners from going to heaven to enjoy eternal life. They must be separated from God.
The need to cancel this law of death and separation from God, was the reason for the cross. Punishments after death are irrelevant to the purpose of the cross.
The consequences of this law of death and separation from God, were not necessarily God's direct judgement, because Satan also has the power to cause death and separation from God. The purpose of the cross was to take these powers out of Satan's control.
The power that Satan has, he originally received from God, for the purpose of disciplining the angels. It is written of Satan in his original state: Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth. (Ezekiel 28:14) One of the functions of a cherub is to guard the things of God and to prevent the disobedient from taking the things of God. This function is revealed in Genesis 3:24 which describes God driving man out of Eden: So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. Thus it was cherubim which prevented the return of Adam and Eve to the Garden of Eden after their disobedience. Although Satan was not one of these cherubim, he presumably, originally had a similar role with respect to the angels, as these cherubim had with respect to Adam and Eve.
Although God does not say that the anointed cherub was Satan, he describes how this anointed cherub was originally perfect but later sinned. What other mighty angelic creature would God be talking about, if not Satan, when He says: Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee . . . they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned; therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God; and I will destroyed thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. (Ezekiel 28:15,16) It seems that Satan's destruction is not yet complete, but that God has allowed him to retain some of his powers of law enforcement and discipline. Evidently, God purposes to defeat Satan before completely destroying him.
That Satan still exercises disciplinary power over men is learned from where Satan accuses Job to God: Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them . . . And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast thou not made an hedge about him? . . . But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. (Job 1:6-12) We learn from this that although Satan's motives are evil, he can only do what God allows. We can also gather from the fact that Satan is allowed to discuss man's fate, the position Satan has with God to affect us.
That God gave Satan authority over mankind is revealed in his words to Christ, when he says of all the kingdoms of the world: All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me. (Luke 4:6) Of course Satan is misusing his God given authority which was given to him before he rebelled against God.
Satan's ability to cause sickness is shown in Job 2:7: So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils.
Satan's power to bring death is shown when God says to Satan of Job: Behold he is in thine hand; but save his life. (Job 2:6) If God had to forbid Satan from killing Job, Satan must have had power to kill.
Although at this time Satan could not kill Job, Satan knew that according to God's law to Adam, also stated in the New Testament: the wages of sin is death, (Romans 6:23) he would eventually be able to kill even Job. That death is caused by Satan in many cases rather than God is clear from Hebrews 2:14: him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.
Although for the wicked death is God's judgement, for those who love God death is the devil's instrument, and an enemy to be overcome: the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. (1 Corinthians 15:26) Something attributed to God could hardly be called an enemy.
In the Old Testament Satan also had power over a person's place of abode after death, as learned from when Saul asks a witch with a familiar spirit to bring up Samuel from the dead. This the woman does by the power of the devil, and brings up Samuel from below the earth. The witch said: an old man cometh up . . . And Saul perceived that it was Samuel. (1 Samuel 28:14) Again we read: Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses. (Jude 9) Although I doubt the inpiration of the book of Jude, I believe that the devil probably lost the argument; nevertheless, that Satan thinks he has God given authority over our abode in the next world is evident in that he argued rather than fought.
All people who died before the cross went to a place under the earth, which in the bible is, called ‘Sheol’ in Hebrew or ‘Hades’ in Greek. These words, which mean ‘the unseen state’ or ‘the unseen world’, have both been translated as ‘Hell’ in some English translations. This may be somewhat confusing to some readers because the word ‘Hell’ has connotations of punishment. Because this is not a place of punishment, I will refer to it by its Hebrew name of ‘Sheol’.
Without exception and according to the judgement of God: The wicked shall be turned into Sheol. (Psalm 9:17)
But the righteous dead before the cross could not go then to heaven. They also had to wait in Sheol. We learn that Sheol is under the earth, as Samuel came up from below the earth. This place to which Job would go is described by him when he said: I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death. (Job 10:21)
That all, both those that love God and those that don't, once had to go to Sheol is clear from Psalm 16:10: thou wilt not leave my soul in Sheol. This psalm of David prophesies of the Lord Jesus Christ according to Peter in Acts 2:25-31. Now if Jesus had to descend into Sheol to save us, it must be that before the cross all went to Sheol; the righteous only before the cross, but the wicked even after it.
God would have preferred to have taken the righteous straight to heaven to dwell with Him (after some sort of transformation to perfection). But God could not do this, I believe, because Satan was enforcing a rule, delegated to him by God, excluding those who had sinned from the presence of God. This was a rule which God the Father would have preferred to waive, as He made this law for disobedient angels when they had no excuse. God did not mean this exclusion rule to apply to man who through weakness and confusion is more subject to deception, and therefore has more excuse for disobedience than the angels.
I will now explain why I think that the law of exclusion from heaven was only meant for the angels. A judge will normally only waive punishment for a crime if mitigating circumstances exist, or if the law was not originally intended for the purpose for which it was being used. To waive the punishment for a crime in other circumstances would be like making a statement that the law was unfair and unreasonable. I believe that similar logic applies to God's laws. If God must find a way around the law excluding men from heaven, then it must mean that the law was never meant for man in his fallen state. The alternative hypothesis is that God made a law which He now regrets. This sounds absurd. Does not Abraham say of God: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? (Genesis 18:25)
Why do I think that Satan enforces the exclusion rule? Because if God enforced it, then He, as judge, would be free to waive its enforcement whenever He chose. The fact that Jesus had to go to the cross to cancel it, means that this exclusion rule must have been delegated to another, that one being Satan.
Further evidence that before the cross it was Satan who enforced the law excluding sinners from heaven, may be found in the fact that Satan, the worst sinner, still had access to God in heaven. If God directly enforced the exclusion from heaven of the disobedient, then surely God would have excluded Satan. Satan's access to God in heaven in Old Testament times is shown in Job 2:6, quoted earlier, where the angels, referred to as ‘sons of God’, and Satan, all came into God's presence.
Satan can only use his powers against men when they disobey God. This is one reason he is so desperate to make men sin. He is like a policeman who gives a driver a bottle of whisky, tells him to drink it, and then arrests him for drunken driving, and will never let him out of jail.
Because man's lost condition is largely because of Satan's deception, God takes pity on those men who will trust God, respond to His love, and seek to follow after what is good instead of continuing in evil. To them God gives heavenly wisdom and understanding, and He also helps them not to desire evil. But because of their past sins, and because they will never be completely perfect on earth, Satan would still have had power over them. This power needed to be broken and to break it Christ had to die on the cross.
In Hebrews 2:14 the writer tells us that Jesus' purpose in going to the cross was to defeat Satan: Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. So we learn that the enemy death, which was defeated by Christ at the cross, was not that which was administered by God to those who hate God, but rather that which was administered by Satan to those who love God.
The defeat of Satan at the cross was prophesied by Jesus when He said: Now is the judgement of the world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die. (John 12:31-33)
Although I have not yet found in the bible an explanation of why Christ's going to the cross can deliver us from Satan's power, I believe that the explanation may be this: Satan, by illegally using his power against Christ who was innocent, misused his power and therefore had it taken away. Perhaps this is analogous to a policeman who abused his power by knowingly arresting an innocent person and so was kicked out of the police force; and then no longer had the power to arrest anyone, whether innocent or guilty. But perhaps we should not speculate, as the apostle Peter when speaking of: the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow, said that these are: things the angels desire to look into. (1 Peter 1:11,12)
You may wonder why the devil had Christ crucified if it meant his defeat. The answer is that the devil did not possess sufficient wisdom to understand this, as Paul writes: we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (1 Corinthians 2:7,8) That the devil is one of the princes of this world is evident from the fact that he offered rule of the world to Christ during the temptation on the mountain.
In order to cancel Satan's power, Jesus first had to experience in full measure Satan's illegal use of disciplinary law. This involved suffering at the hands of men, suffering sickness, suffering death, and suffering separation from God in Sheol.
Jesus suffered at the hands of men, according to the prophecy in Isaiah 53:5: he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. The fulfilment of these prophecies is recorded in Matthew 27:29,30: when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. The reed with which they struck Him on the head was probably a heavy rod, and the word for ‘reed’ is sometimes translated ‘staff’. Also in fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah, Jesus was whipped by Pilate according to Matthew 27:26: when he had scourged Jesus.
Psalm 22 details many aspects of the cross. Jesus' method of death by crucifixion is prophesied in Psalm 22:16: they pierced my hands and my feet. This never happened to King David who wrote the psalm and therefore must refer to Christ. Psalm 22:14 also prophecies: all my bones are out of joint. This is another characteristic of crucifixion. But none of Christ's bones were broken as prophesied in Psalm 22:17: I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. This was fulfilled according to John 19:33,36: they brake not his legs . . . these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.
Something of Jesus' condition upon the cross is seen from Psalm 22:14,15: I am poured out like water . . . my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
The fear Jesus experienced at the cross can be seen from it being likened to being attacked by swords, dogs, and lions: Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth. (Psalm 22:20,21)
Jesus felt great sickness imposed on Him by the devil, according to the prophecy of Isaiah 53:4: Surely He has borne our sicknesses. (NKJV) I believe that this bearing of our sicknesses was by far the greatest suffering of the cross. Some people know what it is like to have one very bad sickness. Upon Jesus, I am sure the devil laid not just one, but a huge number of terrible sicknesses in severity.
I believe that it was this sickness that He feared, when He prayed the night before, in the garden of Gethsemane: Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done . . . and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. (Luke 22:42,44) The cup referred to is the cup of His sufferings, and His sweat of blood shows His great fear. It is a medical fact that it takes terrible fear to create this type of sweat.
But there was no other way so Christ obeyed His Father, saying: But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. (John 14:31)
As there was darkness over all the land while Christ bore our sicknesses, no one saw exactly what it was like, except by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Isaiah prophesies of those, including kings, who in times to come would see by the revelation of God, what it was like: As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men: So shall He sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see. (Isaiah 52:14,15)
It is impossible that the Son of God was being punished by God the Father, as God the Father says: to punish the just is not good. (Proverbs 17:26) That Jesus was facing Satan on the cross rather than the Father is clear from Jesus' words just before the cross, when He said: the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. (John 14:30) The Father was not present with His Son at all on the cross. To the contrary He abandoned His Son to the onslaughts of the devil causing Him to cry out: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46)
This cry was one of many anguished cries to God, according to Hebrews 5:7: he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared. Yet He did not criticise God. He only asked His Father why He had forsaken Him. I believe that this question was asked because the Son did not fully understand how long the Father had to forsake Him on the cross. He only knew that He would have to suffer for a while, and from the Old Testament He would have known from the Passover date that the suffering must finish before sunset. The suffering must have occurred from the sixth hour (noon) until the ninth hour (3 pm) because: from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. (Matthew 27:45) During these three hours of suffering at the hands of Satan, Jesus would have prayed for the Father to save Him. After some hours He could not have understood why the Father had not delivered Him from the suffering, and therefore asked the question, why the Father had not delivered Him. After three hours His distress was so great that He cried this question out with a loud voice. It was soon after this that the Father did deliver Him from the onslaughts of the devil.
This ended the most trying part of the work of Jesus for our redemption (or purchase) from the devil, and: After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished. (John 19:28-30) Thus His work of suffering was finished.
After Jesus had uttered the words ‘It is finished’: he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. (John 19:30) But before He died: he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. (Luke 23:46) The death of Jesus as our sin bearer was prophesied in Isaiah 53:12: he hath poured out his soul unto death . . . and he bare the sin of many.
It was a necessary part of the plan of God that Christ should die for us to save us from dying, as Jesus Himself prophesied, saying: I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. (John 10:11)
The proof of Jesus' death is found in John 19:33-35: But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already . . . one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith there came out blood and water. And he that saw it bear record, and his record is true. The separation of blood and water in the heart proves not only that Jesus died, but also that He died in great anguish. So Jesus did not just go into a coma. The apostle, in John 19:37, tells us that the piercing of Christ's side was in fulfilment of the prophecy: they shall look upon me whom they have pierced. (Zechariah 12:10)
Jesus spoke of His coming death, saying: I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father. (John 10:17,18) I interpret this to mean that Jesus submitted to death. In other words, He was not overpowered by the devil; rather He submitted to the devil's attempt to kill Him. This is the devil’s character. According to Christ: the devil . . . He was a murderer from the beginning. (John 8:44)
That it was Satan inspired man, rather than God who put Christ to death, is clear from Paul’s accusation to the Jews regarding Jesus: ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised up. (Acts 2:23,24) So God the Father's part in the cross was not the killing of Christ, but the raising to life on the third day.
After Jesus had died upon the cross, He was buried in a rich man's tomb, according to the prophecy in Isaiah 53:9: with the rich in his death. The rich man's tomb in which Jesus was buried, belonged to Joseph of Arimathea: When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple: He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed. (Matthew 27:57-60)
There was no chance that they later mistook the tomb from which Jesus rose because: there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre. (Matthew 27:61) And they both observed the tomb when Jesus' body was laid there.
The Jews, who did not believe that Christ would rise from the dead, had the tomb guarded to make sure that his disciples did not steal the body, to pretend that Jesus had risen. This is recorded in Matthew 27:62-66:
the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can. So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.
So there is no chance that Jesus' body was stolen away during these three days, but rather His body remained in the tomb of Joseph.
During this time in the tomb, Jesus' body did not decay (or corrupt) according to the prophecy of David: neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. (Psalm 16:10) As David's body decayed after death it is clear that David was not speaking of his own body, but rather that Jesus' body saw no corruption (according to Acts 13:34-37).
This is an important doctrine, because Jesus is God, Body, Soul and Spirit. How could God decay. Jesus is eternal; Body, Soul and Spirit. To say that Christ decayed is to deny, at least partially, the deity of the Son of God.
After Jesus died upon the cross, for the three days that His body lay in the tomb, His Spirit did not go to heaven into the presence of God the Father, but went to the place under the earth called Sheol. The Lord Jesus descended to this place according to His own words: as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matthew 12:39,40) The tomb of Joseph would not be regarded as the heart of the earth, as it was virtually on the surface. Just as the heart is somewhat central, so the heart of the earth to which Jesus went was deep in the earth. (Jonah, also, descended in the whale). Jesus, therefore, is referring to the descent of His Spirit into Sheol, which is under the earth, rather than just to the burial of His body. This doctrine is taught in Ephesians 4:9, where speaking of Christ, it is written: He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth.
When Jesus went down into Sheol, the devil must have thought that he had defeated God by separating, not only God's offspring the human race from God, but also God the Father from God the Son. But actually the descent into Sheol was the last of Satan's disciplinary powers unto which Christ had to submit, in order to defeat Satan.
The descent into Sheol is especially significant because that is the place where God had said Satan would go, as punishment for trying to usurp the place of God Most High. God said: How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God . . . I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to Sheol, to the sides of the pit. (Isaiah 14:12-15)
Jesus only remained in Sheol for three days until the Father raised Him from the dead, and while in Sheol He suffered no pain. The sufferings of Christ were not in Sheol, but while on the cross. Therefore Peter writes: Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree. (1 Peter 2:24)
He is despised and rejected by men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief . . . All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has caused to land on Him the iniquity of us all . . . He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin . . . By His knowledge My righteous servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. (Isaiah 53 NKJV)
This does not mean that the Father directly put Christ to grief. Rather it means that the Father sent the Son to be put to grief by the devil. The words usually translated ‘The Lord has laid on him the iniquity’ are properly translated ‘The Lord has caused to land on Him the iniquity’. This is also a more logical and reasonable interpretation of the atonement, as the doctrine that God would directly afflict His own righteous Son seems almost abhorrent.
Jesus being our sin bearer, does not necessarily mean that Jesus bore the identical penalty that all of us would have had to bear. It simply means that He, the innocent was punished, to save us, the guilty from being punished.
Jesus never suffered the flames of hell and the bible never says He did. Surely the bible would say so if we are meant to believe this. Therefore Jesus being our sin bearer has nothing to do with saving us from the punishment of the flames of hell. This type of punishment depends not on a complex network of laws, but rather on what God thinks that a person deserves, if he does, like Judas, deserve to be punished. And God rather than Satan administers this. We should not think of the Father, as being so unmerciful that He would feel it necessary to punish everyone. (Jesus singled out people like Judas when he said that some would be better off never to have been born - Matt 26:24)
This understanding God, is the picture that the bible paints, because although God gets angry, He is also understanding: he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. (Psalm 103:14) This is why: The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. (Psalm 103:8) That God is merciful and slow to anger because He knows our weaknesses, seems to disprove the doctrine that the wrath of God for even one sin would doom a man to fire. So I do not believe that God would have created man subject to a law that effectively doomed every man to the flames of hell.
As God directly determines who is punished in hell, He is free to forgive and waive punishment on whom He will. There is no logical reason why He must find a way to allow avoidance of the punishments He administers Himself. Therefore this was not the purpose of the cross.
To summarise and clarify what I have been saying, there were intended to be two forms of punishment for sin. There were the punishments for sin administered indirectly by Satan, (which he now misdirects), consisting of the violence of men, sickness, death and descent into Sheol (ie. separation from God). Then there is the punishments of the flames of hell (for the very cruel only), administered directly by God. Christ's death had no bearing on the punishments administered by God, but only on those administered by Satan. Christ's death was not to save us from the flames of hell, but was rather to save us from exclusion from heaven and death, which probably meant final extinction.
That the cross of Christ was to defeat the devil rather than to avert the direct wrath of God was an early interpretation of the church, dating back to the middle of the third century. It was only in the second millennium that the doctrine of Christ bearing the wrath of God in penal substitution was introduced. I think the original doctrine is preferable because it gives us a picture of a merciful and understanding heavenly Father, unconfused with excessive wrath that must be satisfied, which is out of character with the God of the bible.
What then is the interpretation of Romans 3:24,25: Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness, for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God. It has been argued that propitiation is a gift to appease wrath, and that therefore God's wrath was turned away from us by Christ's substitution for us. But I would argue that it was not God's direct wrath against us that was turned away by Christ's death, but rather the indirect wrath contained in laws and ordinances administered by Satan, that were against us, and that were turned away, Colossians 2:13-15: having forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Being spoiled, (or disarmed as the NKJV and NASB translate), the principalities and powers can no longer use our past sins against us. So: neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers . . . shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38,39)
The work of the cross is often spoken of as our redemption: ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold . . . but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish. (1 Peter 1:18,19) According to the New Dictionary of Theology, redemption is the act of purchasing back one's property. It does not really make sense that Christ purchased us from God the Father. Therefore we must have been purchased from Satan, back to God who is our true owner. The act of our purchase is made even clearer in Acts 20:28: the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
So Jesus being our sin bearer does not mean that He suffered the direct wrath of the Father to save us from the same. Rather it was: that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil (Hebrews 2:14), and so it was necessary that: he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. (Hebrews 2:9)