Again, in his work concerning Councils and the Church,* Dr. Luther says: “We Christians must know that if God is not also in the scales, and does not add his weight, we shall be found wanting. By this I mean, that if it could not be said that God died for us, but if this was only a man, we are lost; but if the death of God, and the fact that God died for us lie in the scale, it will descend, and we shall rise like a light weight; he can indeed also rise up again, or vacate this scale; but he could not be placed in this scale, unless he had become man like unto us; so that we may use the expressions: ‘God died,’ ‘the passion of God,’ ‘the blood of God,’ ‘the death of God.’ For God in his nature cannot die; but now, since God and man are united in one person, we may rightly say: ‘the death of God,’ namely, when the man dies, who is one with God, or one person with God.” Thus far Luther. From these words it is evident that it is an erroneous assertion, when it is said or written, that the aforenamed expressions, “God suffered,” “God died,” are only verbal predications, or mere words without any reality. For our simple Christian faith teaches that the Son of God, who became man, suffered and died for us, and redeemed us with his blood.

Secondly, with respect to the execution of the office of Christ, the person acts and operates, not in, with, through, or according to one nature alone, but in, with, according to, and through both natures; or, as the Council of Chalcedon says, one nature worketh in communication with the other, that which is appropriate to each one. Thus Christ is our Mediator, our Redeemer, our King, our High-Priest, our Head, our Shepherd, &c., not according to one nature alone, whether it be the divine or the human, but according to both natures, as this doctrine has been elsewhere more fully treated. (Page 693).

(Continued)  You showed Your mercy to me before I could perceive it. You came to me with Your kindnesses before I could long for them. Your generosity encompassed me before I could offer thanks for it. You are the one who not only marvelously formed me in the womb of my mother, but also drew me out from the womb. You have been my hope since I was yet at my mother’s breast. I was cast upon You from birth. From my mother’s womb You have been my God (Psa. 22:10–11).

When I consider how many die in the womb before coming to the light of this life, I admire and praise Your mercy all the more, because You brought me, alive, safe, and sound, out of the confinement of the womb into the theater of this world. How many years passed in which I was nothing! But it pleased You to build this dwelling of my body, and to bring it out of the deep and darkness of my mother’s womb. You have given me a rational soul and did not will that I be a stone or snake. To You, my God, for this Your mercy, be honor and glory forever. Amen. (The Daily Exercise of Piety by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, p.30-32)

Omnipotent, eternal God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I give You thanks. I praise You, I glorify You, that Your hands fashioned me and made every detail of what I am. You shaped me like clay in the womb of my mother. You poured me out like milk and curdled me like cheese. You clothed me with skin and knit me together with bones and tendons. You gave me life and showed me mercy, and in Your providence You watched over my spirit (Job 10:9–12). I will celebrate Your great mercy which You have shown me with eternal praises. Your kindness I will declare with everlasting songs of praise. You covered me in the womb of my mother. I will praise You, for I am wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and this my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You because You made me in secret when You adorned me with my various members in the lower parts of the earth. Your eyes saw me when I was yet unformed, and in Your book were written all the days that would be, though not yet one of them was. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is their sum! If I were to count them, they would be more in number than the sands of the sea (Psa. 139:13–18).

(Continued on Circumcision and Name of Jesus)  (from The Daily Exercise of Piety by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, p.30-32)