How does something like the incarnation happen?

The Athanasian Creed does its best to give a succinct answer to this question by saying: He is one, however, not by his divinity being turned into flesh, but by God’s taking humanity to himself.

To be clear, and this is where numerous creeds and confessions are so helpful, this creed is cautious to clarify what it means by saying that the Son of God became a human being. He did not become a human being by being turned into a man. Instead, he became a human being by taking flesh upon himself (i.e., being incarnated).

Again, whenever we can turn to Scripture to substantiate a section of the creed (which is an end to which we should always be pursuing) this will help us better understand what the early drafters of the creed meant by what they wrote. The Apostle Paul puts it like this in Philippians 2: “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:6-7, ESV).

I’d like to focus on one phrase in that statement by Paul: taking the form of a servant. In Greek, the phrase is: μορφὴν δούλου λαβών. The last word in the Greek phrase is what helps us understand what’s going on here. It’s a Greek word that often means I take or I receive. In this sense, it clearly means, I take. Paul shows us by using the word λαβών that the being of the Son of God didn’t change through the incarnation.

Admittedly, it’s splitting hairs, but it’s important.

When the Son of God became a man he did it without changing the essence of who he was; instead, he did it by taking upon himself humanity. You might say that the Son of God added humanity to himself. Or, if you want to stick close to the words of Paul, then Jesus took the form of a servant.