It may have been that the gentiles would never have accepted the message of Christ as it stood unless it was somewhat modified to fit with the imperial mindset of the Western, come gentile world.
Paul freed them from the Mosaic Laws which Christ supported with modifications. Paul also freed them from a need to treat as equals those they subjected and conquered. It gave the West a mandate to enslave nation in the guise of bringing the savage to God via Jesus. And through Paul we get this Jesus is God nonsense that set religion against religion and has caused no end of trouble.
But it did bring the gentile world into a form of belief that still had a profound effect on law, morality and the structure of civil society. So Paul may have been a necessary path for the gentile world even though his teaching contradicted what Christ taught.
