"It is misleading to say that God accepts us the way we are. Rather he accepts us despite the way we are. He receives us only in Christ and for Christ's sake. Nor does He mean to leave us the way He found us, but to transform us into the likeness of His Son. Without that transformation and new conformity of life we do not have any evidence that we were ever His in the first place." - Dr. Sinclair Ferguson
"It is misleading to say that God accepts us the way we are. Rather he accepts us despite the way we are. He receives us only in Christ and for Christ's sake. Nor does He mean to leave us the way He found us, but to transform us into the likeness of His Son. Without that transformation and new conformity of life we do not have any evidence that we were ever His in the first place." - Dr. Sinclair FergusonComments:
Jesus came "to proclaim good news to the poor ... to proclaim liberty to the captives." (Luke 4:18)
When sinners like us, by the grace of God, come to Christ one of the most important reasons we do so is because we want Him to unburden us from our sin, both from its guilt and from its power ... with the goal that we might have intimate fellowship with God.. so to know that God will not leave us as we are, in sin's grip, is a major part of the good news of Christ.