If God can't change, how did He become man?

[surrendered]

The following answer on the pre-existence of Jesus raises a question that has bugged me for some time:

“God the Son, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, has eternally co-existed with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. The God-man, Jesus Christ, has existed from the time of his Incarnation within the Blessed Virgin Mary. In other words, because he is God, God the Son has always existed; but at his Incarnation, God the Son assumed a human nature and became the man who would be known as Jesus of Nazareth, while still retaining his divine nature and remaining the eternal God the Son.”

How can God be eternally unchanging (an essential characteristic of God) if He changed by assuming a human nature at a particular point in time? Not to mention that once incarnated He continued to change (grow / mature) as any human does?

Thanks

 

[Fr.Vincent_Serpa]

Dear S,

God cannot change in His divinity. But God can effect change outside of His divinity as in His act of creating the world. Similarly, Jesus’ divine nature never changed. But He could effect change outside of His divinity in taking on a human nature that could experience change.

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.