The way we fulfill the great commission is to live the great commandment... Love God. Love Others.
We try to convince people to follow a Jesus they don't know... Our first responsibility is to show people what Jesus is like.
If we can learn to authentically and radically love people we will not need to convince them of anything - they will be drawn to Jesus as he is - unencumbered by our own agendas, motivations and egos.
When did Jesus ever confront sin except in the Pharisees? Do you think he got invited to parties because he was so good at convincing people they were sinners? The only time he even came close to addressing sin was with the woman at the well - whom he had already shown radical, unabashed love to... even then it was less of a confrontation and more "thanks for being honest."
Whether they admit it or not people know they are sinners. They know they are broken. They know they are unfulfilled. They may suppress their knowledge of God (Romans 1:18) but somewhere inside they know he is there and that they are incapable of having a relationship with him.
That being said we can't ignore sin. Those who are truly seeking to reconcile with God need to admit that for their entire lives they have been trying to live autonomous from God. Each of us have looked the all-powerful, all-knowing, perfect God whose very essence is love in the face and said, "No, I want to do it my way." That is the offense of sin. It is unthinkable that we, his creation, would rebel against one so holy and loving.
But there is also an offense with grace. We like our self-sufficency. We like our independence. We may in our natural selves want to be autonomous from God but in reality we are completely dependent on him. We can choose to be offended with the truth that we are dependent or we can embrace it and receive the grace that reconciles us to our Father.
Autonomy does not equal freedom. Dependance equals freedom. Only when we are dependent on him do we really know what freedom is. People want to be free. People want to be loved. More then they want to be autonomous.
Show them what dependence is. Show them what freedom is. Show them what love is.
