Gold Tried in the Fire - Robert J. Wieland

and Christ would together share a great reward that
very day (the comma placed before the word today
is inserted by translators and has no place in the
original Greek). Luke 23:42. While it is true that up
to this point Jesus was conscious of ultimate
victory, this was not the end or the full measure of
His sufferings and death for us. After the episode
with the repentant thief, darkness enveloped the
cross and Jesus entered the terrible experience of
the hiding of His Father's face—something He had
never experienced before. It was this that is
described as His tasting "death for every man."
Hebrews 2:9.
The Real Meaning of Death
This "death" was not what we superficially
assume it to be. What we call death is not the real
thing, for the Bible calls it "sleep." See John 11:11-
14 and 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17. Jesus "tasted" the
second death "for every man," the death in which
there is no cheering light of hope at all. It's as
though every cell of your body, soul, and mind is
agonizingly crushed by the horror of a great
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