“Without the hypothesis that Jesus is God-incarnate it is hard to make
sense of any part of the New Testament. These claims by Jesus and the
apostles, taken together, have led Christians to conclude that the
valid beginning point for understanding this particular man is plainly
and simply that he is truly God while not ceasing to be truly human.

“The deity of Christ is the differential feature of Christianity. Even
Hegel could discern that ‘the Christian religion has this
characteristic: that the Person of Christ in his character of the Son
of God himself partakes of the nature of God.’

“A suffering messiah who is less than God may elicit our pity or
admiration, but not our worship. A messiah to whom one cannot pray is
not the Christ of the New Testament. If the Messiah is God’s own
coming, then Christ is God, according to apostolic reasoning.”

~ Thomas C. Oden, Classic Christianity: A Systematic Theology (2009)

http://creedalchristian.blogspot.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Christianity-Systematic-Thomas-Oden/dp/0061449717