Behold (2)

Emmanuel is a name both of nature and office. It is a name of his nature, God and man; and of his office, which is to reconcile God and man. The pure nature of God, and the fallen nature of man, which were strangers since the fall, are knit together in Christ. What can be in a greater degree of strangeness, except the devil's, than man's unholiness and God's pure nature? Yet the nature of man and of God are met together in one Christ; so that in this one word, Emmanuel, there is heaven and earth, God and man, infinite and finite; therefore, we may well prefix the word, behold! (Isa. 7:14a). A true Saviour of the world must be God with man, whether we consider the good we are to have by a Saviour, or the evil we are to be freed from by a Saviour, both enforce that he must be Emmanuel, God with us. To satisfy the wrath of God, to undergo a punishment due to sin as our surety, to give us title to heaven, and to bring us there, to know our hearts, our wants, our griefs, our infirmities; who can do these things but God?
As he was God, so there was a necessity of his becoming man. For man had sinned, man must suffer for sin, and without the shedding of blood there was no remission' (Heb. 9:22). Also, that he might be a merciful and faithful Saviour' (Heb. 2:17), he must take the nature on him of those he means to save.
This God and man must be one person; for if there were two persons, there would be two Christs, and the actions of the one could not be attributed to the other. If only as a man he died and shed his blood, it could not have been said that God died; but because there was but one person, God is truly said to die. In all his actions there was concurrence of divinity and humanity; the meaner works being done by the manhood, the greater works by the Godhead, so making him, Emmanuel, God with us.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
Miracle of Miracles, Works, vol. 7, pp. 111-13
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