We live in a world where everyone wants to live their "truth", which results in them taking offense at the actual truth. This manifests itself in many ways, and in the modern day, the law itself demands delusions be respected. Thankfully, however, it is not yet illegal to profess the fact that Jesus is the one and only way to Heaven. At least, not in my country. Nevertheless, this truth is considered offensive.
See, we all want to go to Heaven. Of course we do. We know this life is going to end, and that's a difficult reality to grasp. When others die, we miss them. When we come close to death, we resist it. When we finally lose that fight, it's a lovely thought that we have somewhere better to go. Thus, when someone says "you will not inherit the Kingdom of God", that often rubs us the wrong way.
But tell me, who has authority over their home? Obviously, the home owner. We can't just walk into private property without the owner's permission. We certainly don't get to just live there. Something has to justify it.
There are things that can. If you rent a house, you have the landlord's permission to live there, of course submitting to their terms. Perhaps they're your friend, and have agreed to put a roof over your head. Maybe you're even a family member. It's only natural for a child to live with their parents, with very few conditions attached.
What do all of these things have in common? Each reason for living in another's property requires some form of relationship. It may be superficial. You don't need a particularly strong relationship with your landlord, though it certainly can't hurt. It may be a much more powerful bond. A good parent will always have a place for their offspring, even long after they've "flown the coop". One thing is certain: You cannot simply waltz into your enemy's house and say "I live here now".
Yet this is exactly how people treat God. Heaven, you see, is God's "home". Not that He needs a home, of course. He is entirely self-sufficient, and self-contained. Nevertheless, Heaven is His Kingdom, and it is entirely His right to decide who may enter and who must be excluded. How, then, is it so offensive to those who refuse His conditions for entry to be told that they will not enter?
Imagine, for a moment, you own a mansion. You have many rooms, more than enough for you and all your family. You also happen to be the only one in your family who is financially stable. You're not just rich enough to buy a mansion, you're rich enough to pay off all their gambling debts, all their bail money, all their criminal fines, and even to pay their dealers to go away. You offer them all a place in your mansion, but with conditions. They must cut ties with their dealers, quit gambling, and stop breaking the law, and of course acknowledge you as the landlord who paid for all of this.
What would you think if one of them, wanting nothing to do with you, nevertheless tried to claim a room in your mansion, and swiftly turn it into a home for their illegal activities? They lock the door whenever you knock, they invite their criminal friends round, they constantly gamble away all the money they have, and every so often you even have to placate the police on their account? Presumably, you'd be quite ticked off.
God is a lot like that. Heaven is His home, and He's more than "rich" enough to provide a special place there just for you. Ironically, He does not have so many conditions for you to claim it. The sole condition to receive a place in the Kingdom of Heaven is to confess Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead. That's all that's needed. To get into Heaven, all you need is a positive relationship with the God who shed His own blood to get you there.
Of course, sin must be dealt with. You don't get to just say "oh yeah, Jesus is the risen Lord. Ok, I'm off to wallow in iniquity again". But faith leads to repentance, so the removal of sin from your life is the goal, not the condition, of salvation. But that is rather the point. Why is it offensive to you that God excludes from His Kingdom that which is offensive to Him? If you're living a life in which your sin is more important to you than God, what possible reason could He have for letting you in? You can have God and His home, or you can have sin and its home, but you cannot live for Hell and live in Heaven.
Of course, ironically, none of this matters if it's not true. What if there is no Heaven? If Heaven is imaginary, no one should be offended by being told they're not going. You can have the best relationship with me as is humanly possible, I can't give you a mansion. I don't live in one. Why, then, would you be offended if I said you're not moving in to my non-existent mansion? In the same way, only if Heaven is a real place should we seek to enter it.
There are thousands of religions out there. Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Roman Catholicism, Mormonism, Evolution, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Taoism, Shinto, the list goes on for miles. But all of these have one thing in common: Their founders died. Joseph Smith is dead. Charles Darwin is dead. Muhammad is dead. Buddha, the Guru Nanak, Emperor Constantine, even Moses, God rest his soul, all of these people died. And they stayed dead.
Jesus? He died too. In fact, even atheistic scholars acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus is one of the most certain facts of history. But He didn't stay dead. This one fact separates Christianity from every other religion in the world. Our founder put His money where His mouth was, submitting Himself to death, but ultimately conquering it. Now, who is more likely to have the power to grant eternal life: One man who rose from His grave, or many who are still in theirs?
By rising from the dead, Jesus proved His authority over death once and for all. He, and He alone, can grant you a place in Heaven. If that is still offensive to you, tough. It is His Kingdom, He may grant entry to whoever He wants, and He may refuse whoever He wants. But it should not be offensive to you, because He is offering entry to you. You can go to Heaven. But it does require a relationship with God through Jesus. Anything less than love for the Author of life will result in death. Don't delay: Claim your salvation now.