I have stumbled across this article a couple of times and I feel I may have mentioned it already. So I am linking to it again and just going to quote a paragraph:

There is a scandalous dimension to the intrusion of God upon goodness. Many atheists today claim that Christianity is “offensive” in some way or another. Kierkegaard would say this is quite in order – Christianity is offensive and must be so in order to remain what it is. The offensive aspect of the difference God makes to goodness is one that Kierkegaard thought Socrates missed, as he believed anyone without the benefit of revelation would have done, no matter how wise they were in other respects.

The gospel according to Kierkegaard: Sin, guilt and the offense of forgiveness

Christianity is offensive because there is something offensive about Jesus. When an individual is confronted by the reality of the Word Incarnate, the God-man, offence is one of the responses – the other being a leap into faith, into the uncertainty of a relationship. The same as when the individual is confronted by the reality of sin in their own life. Modern Christianity has turned Jesus into one product amongst many and has made Him acceptable to the market. But do I miss the real depth of the Gospel when I refuse the offence of Jesus?

Another paragraph:

To forgive sins is a radical, wild, gratuitous folly. Really to forgive is to do something grossly offensive: it is to move beyond the categories of moral good and evil, to declare that, yes, an evil has been done against you, but that the evil is dispelled, it is of no account. Forgiving sin however means that the forgiver is still exposed to the possibility that the offender could hurt them again. This is part of what makes forgiveness so reckless: it offers no protection against future injury. For someone really to forgive, they have to reconcile themselves to the offenses of the past and remain vulnerable to injury in the future. Most of us are too self-protective, too shrewd, too timid really to forgive. But without forgiveness we are stuck in a cycle of self-loathing and despair.

I really like that paragraph. There is something very offensive about forgiveness. Because there is a risk of future injury. Forgiveness is a willingness to remain in a relationship even if the future is full of risk. All because of the other person, because of love. Anyway, I like the above article and it is Australian so another bonus.