The Exegetical Systematician: The Great Mystery of History

“The great miracle of history is the coming of the Son of God. He came by becoming man, by taking human nature into union with his divine person. The result was that he was both God and man. God in uncurtailed Godhood, in the fulness of divine being and attributes, and man in the integrity of human nature with all its sinless infirmities and limitations, uniting in one person infinitude and finitude, the uncreated and the created. This is the great mystery of history. And since Christianity is the central and commanding fact of history, it is the mystery of Christianity, ‘the mystery of godliness’ (1 Tim. 3:16). So unique is this fact that we might well think that disclosure would have to wait for the fulfillment. But astounding is the fact that the Old Testament furnishes the elements, and we read: ‘Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given etc (Isa. 9:6). Again: ‘There shall come a shoot out of the stock of Jesse’ (Isa. 11:1).”  —John Murray, The Unity of the Old and New Testaments