Abstract: There are three reasons why an omnipotent and perfectly good God might choose to become incarnate (to become human, as well as divine). The first is to provide atonement for our sins. All humans have wronged God, and the resulting guilt requires repentance, apology, and reparation. We can repent and apologize, but we have not the time or the will to ‘make it up’ to God. He must himself provide the reparation in the form of a perfect life of the kind that we should have lived. The second reason is to identify with our suffering, and the third is to reveal to us moral and theological truths that we need for living.

Keywords: atonement, God, incarnation, perfection, reparation, repentance, revelation, sin, suffering,