Answer: Since we, the children of God, have flesh and blood, Jesus became human so that by His Own death He might destroy the one who holds the power of death--that is, the devil. By His Own death, and then His resurrection by God, Jesus frees those people who all their lives were, and are, held in slavery by their fear of death, (verses 14 and 15).
MORE INFORMATION AND/OR OTHER SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:
John 1:14: "The Word [Jesus] became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, Who came from the Father, full of grace and Truth."
1 John 3:8-10: "He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother."
Obedient believers are no longer held in the bondage of slavery by their fear of death:
2 Timothy 1:7: "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."
When perishable man clothes himself with the imperishable Christ, then there is no fear of death because we are already victorious over death through our Lord Jesus Christ:
1 Corinthians 15:54-56: "When the perishable [man] has been clothed with the imperishable [Christ], and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.' ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?' The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Galatians 3:26: "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ."
