Curious Christian

Even the social gospel, which made sin more of an offense against our fellow humans rather than first and foremost against God, at least recognized it as a failure to give to someone else the love and service that I owe. In the increasingly pervasive message of preachers like Osteen, however, sins become offenses I commit against myself that keep me from realizing my own expectations. It is therapeutic narcissism: I have failed to live up to my potential, to secure God’s best for my life, or to follow the instructions that lead to the good life.

Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church (Michael Horton)

Michael Horton’s words here reveal a striking shift in how sin (and by extension, the gospel) is reframed in much of popular preaching. His description of “therapeutic narcissism” hits on something many of us have likely felt: a message that subtly redefines sin as a personal failure to achieve self-improvement rather than a deeper offense against God. It’s not just that this view is incomplete, it’s that it distorts the very heart of what the gospel is about.

At its core, sin is relational. It’s a rupture in our relationship with God that then spills out into brokenness with others. Even the social gospel, as Horton notes, at least recognized this second part, that sin is a failure to love and serve others as we ought. But when sin becomes all about me—about not reaching my potential or not getting what I think God wants for my life—it becomes self-centered. The gospel itself gets reduced to a set of tools for personal growth and fulfillment, rather than the good news of salvation and reconciliation with God.

This reorientation might feel appealing at first. Who doesn’t want to hear that they’re destined for success or that following a few steps will bring them the life they’ve always wanted? But there’s a hollowness in that message because it ultimately turns everything inward. Instead of being called out of ourselves, out of our sin and selfishness, we’re told that the problem and solution both lie within us. And that’s exhausting.

Horton’s critique invites us back to the bigger picture. If sin is primarily about a broken relationship with God, then the solution is not found in striving harder to achieve my potential but in repentance, grace, and surrender. It’s about being drawn into God’s story, a story that frees us from ourselves and reorients us toward Him and others. This isn’t about settling for less but about discovering something so much greater: the beauty of a life lived in love and obedience to God, not as a means to an end, but as the end itself.