The second of two names given to our Lord is “Immanuel,” from the prophecy in Isaiah 7:14. This verse describes how a virgin will give birth to a son and that people will call his name “Immanuel.” Matthew inserts the translation of this Hebrew term – it means “God with us.”
Now, Jesus is never called “Immanuel” in any of the Gospels or in the rest of the New Testament. So, the name symbolizes the profound mystery of a man who is also God. And that mystery is at the heart of the incarnation, at the heart of the nature of Christ, and at the heart of His glorious ministry to bear our sins as our substitute on the cross.
Because Christ is “God with us,” we know God is for us and not against us (Rom 8:31). We know that He will never desert us nor forsake us (Heb 13:5). We know that we have a sympathetic great High Priest who passed through the heavens only after He became sin for us (Heb. 4:14-15; 2 Cor 5:21). We know He is able to come to aid of those who are tempted because He was tempted in His sufferings (Heb 2:18). We know He is our Advocate with the Father who is the propitiation for our sins (1 Jn 2:1-2). We know that He sits at the right hand of God interceding for us (Rom 8:34). We know that He abides in us and we in Him (1 Jn 4:13).
And yet, Christ ascended in a resurrected body and remains in that state forever fills our hearts with fear and wonder. How could the One through whom God made the universe be robed in flesh though He returned to His preincarnate glory? Why would He choose to remain in a body, even in a glorified one? Because Christ loves us. And He wants to be one of us, one with us, and to show just how much He wants to dwell with us and have us dwell with Him.
What will it be like to know God with us in the flesh, when our eyes finally lock with His and faith turns to sight? Christmas points us to that future hope. But in the meantime, though Christ be absent in the flesh, He is with us…God with us…and that makes all the difference in the world.
