Why did God become man?

I have been reading N. T. Wright's Surprised by Hope. In this Advent season, Wright suggests that we have tended to emphasize some of the reasons that Jesus came to earth, but have neglected an important gospel message on the topic. I think he is right. See this post from College of Biblical Studies (CBS) to make my point: http://cbshouston.edu/blog/2011/12/19/why-did-god-become-man/. Now, I am not insulting CBS. I appreciate their work in Houston. Their Christmas post just happened to come on the day that I was thinking about this. Now, none of what is in that article is incorrect (Jesus did come to pay the penalty sin, reveal God, reconcile, redeem, and be an example.).

However, the gospels present Jesus' entry into this world as the inbreaking of God's kingdom (or Kingdom of Heaven). This world was completely transformed because Jesus was born, lived, died, and rose from the dead. Jesus came to reconcile the world to God. And, that reconciling was accomplished by his resurrection power. Now, we are involved in the reconciling of this world to God. That daunting task was given to us by none other than Jesus himself. Fortunately, Jesus did not leave us alone. He has risen to be with us forever, and the Holy Spirit is present to empower and embolden us!

God became man to transform the kingdom of this world into the kingdom of heaven. This has been our advent theme at Cypress Oaks Church. I'm glad to be a part of that. Gungor's "Heaven" has become something of a theme song. That's all for now.