ba1969, http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1152758
Jesus is many things. He is the son of God and the son of man. He is gentle and humble. Jesus is a brother to all Christians. He is the head of the Church. These are all good things, but above all, he is God; he is the Christ and he is the only way to salvation. The works of Christ prove that he is God; they fulfill all prophesy that he is Christ, the messiah, and they demonstrate why he is the only way to salvation.
Jesus is God. He is the son of God in an earthly sense since he was conceived of the Holy Spirit, so he is the physical offspring of God on earth. He is not, however, the literal offspring of God in the sense that God the Father would have had offspring of his own in heaven. The Bible is clear that Jesus was with God in the beginning. Christ himself recognized that he was the physical, incarnate representation of God when he claimed that, “all which is the Father’s is mine” (John 16.15) and that, “anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14.9). He demonstrated this passion when he overturned the tables of the merchants in the temple courts. They were defiling laws that he himself put into place because he is one in spirit with the Father. The Spirit convicts me when I defile the law, because of this passion that Christ has over his law. As a result I have a desire for repentance and seek holiness not wickedness.
It is appropriate that Jesus be God in order to fulfill messianic prophesy. It was the spirit of God upon the prophets that inspired them. So who better to fulfill prophesy than God himself. Jesus came to earth born of a virgin to fulfill prophesy. It is not that he, being God, could not come of some other means. The miracles that he performed before the people, healing the blind and the sick, were to fulfill prophesy. All prophesy was fulfilled by Christ. It was this fulfillment that Paul used to convince many Jews that Jesus was the messiah, and the way to salvation. For us too, the fulfillment of prophesy serves as an evangelistic tool and an apologetic tool. To me, this is another level of assurance; what I believe is true because it has long been foretold.
The Jews had a need for a messiah to save them from their sins, but they believed they needed it to save them from persecution (really a very minor difference since the persecution was a direct result of their sin). Jesus was on earth to pay the penalty once and for all for those sins of the past and for the sins to come, of the present and future. Jesus said, “no one comes to the Father, but through me” (John 14.6). It is through Christ alone that we are saved, because he was the only pure lamb. Any other sacrifice would have been inadequate to pay the penalty and all men would perish. Jesus could have, being God, avoided the death and persecution that he received on earth, but he proceeded with it because of his great love for mankind. I am saved from the penalty of my sin by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Jesus is God. He is the Christ, the one sent to pay the penalty for the sins of man and he is the only way to salvation. God knew before creation that he would sacrifice of himself in this way in order to save a rebellious creation, and he did, with the full power to avoid it and the full authority to supercede it. It is all out of His love for mankind.
Jesus the Messiah: God and Man