"9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, 12 saying,
“I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”
13 And again,
“I will put my trust in him.”
And again,
“Behold, I and the children God has given me.”
Hebrews 2:9-13
But now, Christ's being made a little lower than the angels opens up a wonderful passage as the Apostle explains why this was, and the rest of the chapter is taken up with an exposition of the death that He died for our sakes. And in this, incidentally, we surely see His immeasurable superiority over the angels. There are three statements of fundamental importance made concerning Christ's death. The first is in 9, where we read that by the grace of God He tasted death for every man. What does this mean? We once read a tremendous sermon on this text, in which the preacher went right through the New Testament in its reference to death as we know it, and pointed out how our Lord repeatedly called this, not death, but sleep (e.g. Lazarus: he is not dead, but sleepeth). But when the Scriptures speak of His death, it was not sleep, but death. There is a fundamental difference between Christ's death and death as we know it. What we know as death, gruesome and horrible as it is, is but sleep. He alone died, in the full meaning of the term. For death, in its fullest sense, means separation from God, for it is the wages of sin. No one has ever died as Jesus died, because no one has ever been separated from God as Jesus was. He tasted death, drinking its cup to the bitter dregs, so that we might never have to put our lips to it, This is the meaning of the terrible cry of dereliction, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" This is what it meant for Him to taste death. He went outside the gates of God for our sakes, that we might be brought home to the Father's house,