Remarking on Luther’s treatment of Christ’s being called Immanuel, God with us, Ulrich Asendorf says, “Christ is the stricken one, afflicted with the same misery as we are. But as an allied soldier He will deliver us from all evil and offer His help to us. In digging the trenches of defense He gives us His help not as an unconcerned observer, but in direct engagement, bearing the burden and heat of the work. Likewise as soldiers having a fellow-combatant we can say that He endures the bad and the good with us. So Christ is with us in the mud and is working “das lhm die haut rauchet” (till His skin smokes). God is with us bearing our harm and taking away the sin of the world. He put Himself under the law, the might of the devil, and the wrath of God, to overcome all these, so that we might be able to gain the same victory by believing in Him.”
