Hebrews 2:14 “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;”
This verse appears to say that the devil has the power of
death over us. How do we understand this?
The Bible uniformly says that God is the one who controls
death and not the devil. Rev 1:18, 2:23, 6:8, Heb 5:7. This is further
complicated by the term second death. If physical death is not the end since
there is a resurrection of all people from the dead (Rev. 20:13), then we need
to understand the death as being second death.
I Cor 15:56 says that the sting of death is sin. That means
if sin was not there, death would be harmless. But since the adverse effect of
sin has been dealt with by Jesus on the cross, the sting of death has vanished
and so death has no power on us any longer. We no longer face the second death (Rev. 20:6).
Most commentators therefore interpret Hebrews 2:14 as 'he who has power to destroy us through
sin'. This sin results in our death, if we have not accepted Jesus as our
Saviour. So though the second death comes from the judgement of God, the devil
ha some influence here by tempting us to sin. This is referred to as the devil having the power of death.
