Actually, FA is going out a ways here, but I'd go so "far" as to say (being Gentile and not a first century potential convert helps a lot here) that it really is beside the point totally whether he was a JEWISH MESSIAH in order for one to give him credit for bringing a universal message. He was what he was, a gutsy and spiritual teacher way out beyond his disciples, who always come off like 4 sets of "3 stooges" next to him, if you read the NT and their conversations. His patience must have been really tried with them but they seem to have really matured after he was gone.. As far as the atonement etc., you could either speculate that is what his followers conceptualized and was how they expressed their sense of "liberation." Or (re. question why wouldn't God be able to just plain forgive, and God probably can) maybe God, knowing how wormlike creatures might need a deeper, poignant type of event to symbolize around, went ahead and provided it. Or Jesus opened himself up to it.