Love, Sin and Wrath

Today, I got into a bit of an argument about whether or not we should talk about sin when we tell people about Jesus, or just talk about the love of God. The person I was speaking to thought that God didn't show wrath, so we should only ever talk about God's love.

What this argument made me notice is this:

Virtually every major passage in Scripture that tells us how amazing God's love is shows it against the background of our sinfulness and/or the fact that by rights we deserve God's wrath.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
1 John 4:10

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16

I don't by any means think we always need to tell people that they are sinners when we speak to them about Jesus - sometimes people already know it, for example. But they do need to know that things are in some sense broken before we can see why it is good that Jesus puts them right. In order for us to recognise Jesus as our saviour, we need to see that we need one. Yes, it's not just from sin, but sin is a big part of it.