Christians, does the Bible teach that people must clean up their act BEFORE they come to Christ?

Question

So He will then accept them? Is that what repentance is about - making ourselves more acceptable to God? What do you think?

Answer 1

No don't worry about sin in your life. The good Lord will take care of that.. All He asks you to do is trust Him. He will do the rest.. The thief on the cross just asked Jesus to remember him when He came into His Fathers Kingdom. Jesus saved him right there and then telling him that he would be with Him in heaven that very day.. There is no way to be acceptable to God by our own efforts..
Consider this:
To bake a chocolate cake you add a lot of wonderful ingredients. Sugar , Flour, Milk, Eggs, Coco.. You mix them in a bowl and and bake then until the cake is done to perfection. But would the cake be good for anything if one one of the eggs was rotten? All those wonderful fresh ingredients ruined by that one bad one... Our lives are like that we add wonderful qualities like love, kindness, compassion, charity. Then we add anger, hate, lust, lies.. We stir this up and bake it for 70 years or so then offer it to God.. Can't you see unacceptable this is to God. Would you want anything given to you that was so filled with filth? No we can't make ourselves acceptable to God. He did that for us in Jesus Christ. He offers us His righteousness and willingly take our sin and covers it with His own blood.. All He asks is that you except the gift of life that He offers.... IHS Jim

Answer 2

No- let me explain this if I can in a way that will be easily understood. We can never clean up our act without Christ. Repentance comes after confession- we must admit that we are sinners in need of salvation- and Christ is the way, the truth and the life. Confession is just agreeing with God that what we have done in sin- we accept Christ as full payment of sin- repentance is not feeling sorry, it is actually taking a turn away from our sin toward God and His ways, however the only way we can do that is by accepting Christ as our Savior- we are never good enough on our own. If we had to wait until we get our act together to come to Christ, we never would or could.

Answer 3

No, we can come to Christ just the way we are. They thief on the cross is an excellent example of a sinner that Christ accepted. He had no time to make any changes. All he did was accept Christ and Christ forgave him.

Answer 4

no, you can come to Christ as you are...


BUT,

this suggests you need to do some growing before your baptised..

"Luk 3:7 Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Luk 3:8 Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
Luk 3:9 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Luk 3:10 And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then?
Luk 3:11 He answereth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise. "

so here we have John the Baptise saying sure you can come get
baptised if your already believe in him...but profess something
(show) that you really are ready to take that 2nd step into the kingdom.

in our church you take 2 steps first you are "born again"
and you then attend church and take part in some of its
services...

then after a time when you are ready THEN come be baptised

I.E...show the world and Christ your "cleaning up" your act...

Answer 5

Absolutely not!! Everyone is a sinner and unacceptable to God, but Jesus cleanses you of your sins making you acceptable. I'm not saying it is magic and you aren't going to struggle with past demons and still have some work to do, but Christ will help you "clean-up your act" by allowing you to off load on to Him and putting people in your life that can help guide you.

Answer 6

This know that in the last days perilous times shall come , for men shall be lovers of themselves , covetous ,
boasters , proud , blasphemers , disobedient to parents , unthankful , unholy , without natural affection ,
trucebreakers , false accusers , incontinent , fierce , despisers of those that are good , traitors , heady ,
high-minded , lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God , having a form of godliness but denying the power
of it ; from such turn away . For this of this sort are they who creep into houses and lead captive silly women
laden with sins , led away with various lusts , ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth

Answer 7

You don't get cleaned up to take a bath do you?

I don't see anything in the Bible that mentions we have to clean up before coming to Christ.

The change comes because we came to Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.

Answer 8

No. Repentance is having a change of mind. You turn away from you old ways, and follow God. Repenting is not "saying" you are sorry. "Being" sorry is conviction at work. Yield to that conviction, and you have repented.

Answer 9

Im uncertain what you're asking. Are you asserting for Gods human beings to have business enterprise it has to have a label? Noah grew to become into organised, following specific instructions from God. The tribes of israel have been organised. Moses appointed tribal heads. The levite priests have been organised. The judges have been organised. The kings of israel observed theocratic order. the 1st century congregation grew to become into organised. Gods servants have consistently had business enterprise. Your element approximately paul is laughable. Acts 15 talks of a dispute that paul had with others and grew to become into settled via the older adult males in jerusalem, Gods business enterprise at that element. *edit* basically via grace has merely made a case for the jehovahs witnesses. we are imperfect, we've made blunders as is documented in our guides, yet we nonetheless sense Jehovah sees good in our hearts and is guiding us inspite of our human imperfections. thank you for the endorsement. ;)

Answer 10

Not at all. "God demonstrated His love toward us in that while we are yet sinners, Christ died for us" Romans 5:8
Also, consider the song, "Just As I Am". God accepts us just the way we are, but loves us too much to leave us that way. The only requirement is that you realize your need for Christ's atonement, accept His sacrifice on your behalf, and decide to quit living for yourself and live for God. You must realize that you can NEVER be good enough to achieve heaven on your own. "For all of our righteousness is as filthy rags". You must rely on His righteousness to get you in the gate.