Being offensive is the highest form of cultural sin. That’s bad news for us Christians because the gospel is offensive.

I want to make this clear, it is the Gospel that is supposed to be offensive, not us. The Bible clearly tells us of its offensiveness 1 Peter 2:8, Galatians 5:11, and Romans 9:33. But why?

The gospel informs people, amongst other things, the following…

• You are a sinner by nature and choice.  (Romans 3:10-18)
• You are under the wrath of an almighty God. (Romans 1:18 ; Romans 2:5)
• You can’t fix yourself. (Ephesians 2:8-10)
• Your best efforts to do good are more stinky than a pile of poo and filthy menstual rags.
• You cannot know God via any other means or religions outside of Christ, everything else is damnable. (John 14:6)

If you are preaching a gospel that’s not offending, THEN YOU ARE NOT PREACHING THE RIGHT GOSPEL. The results of gospel preaching will always be drastic. It will either result in radical life change for someone else or anger and persecution towards the one who proclaims it.

Now, let’s not forget that the benefits of the gospel are things like salvation, eternity with God, unity with God, deepest satisfaction and joy, personal holiness, freedom from sin, and a life that brings glory to God.

The delusion of many Christians today is that they can tell people about the benefits of the gospel without ever talking about the offensive parts. That’s world-class nonsense, and any attempt to coax people to faith by dangling just the blessings of the Gospel in front of them is just the old “Jesus-will-improve-your-life” lie. He didn’t come to improve your life. He came to save your life. And for you to receive a new one, you must understand that you need to give up your old one. To pretend otherwise is an affront to the gospel. To pretend otherwise while sharing the Gospel is to idly stand by while your friends and loved ones go to hell.

See, we must be offended by the Gospel in the hopes that we’ll be jolted from the sleepiness of satisfaction of our current sinful, broken state. The offense of the Gospel must wake us up to the depravity that exists between us and God. The offensive truth of the Gospel is that we are in such a sinful state as to be offensive to God. The offensive truth of the Gospel is that we are spiritually dead before God and there is absolutely nothing we can do about this ourselves. The offensive truth of the Gospel is that we, by ourselves, are without hope.  The truth of the Gospel is that God sent His Son, Jesus, as a living sacrifice to wash us of our sins. Acceptance of this offensive truth is the only way that we can be made righteous before God. Refusal of this gift leads to hell, where you will be eternally under the wrath of God, forever.

Yes, the Gospel is offensive.