We Christians must know that if God s not in the scale [of justice] to give it weight, our side of the scale sinks to the ground. What I mean is this: If it cannot be said that God, not a mere man, dies for us, we are lost. But if God’s death and a God Who has died lie in the balance, His side goes down and ours snaps up as though it were light and empty…But He could not be in the scale without becoming a man like us, so that we could speak of God’s dying, God’s suffering, of God’s blood, God’s death. For God in His own nature cannot die; but now, since God and man are united in one Person, the death of the man [Jesus Chist] with whom God is one Thing or Person is justly called the death of God.

–Martin Luther, 1539