Satan is a master at getting us to believe lies and preach them as God’s truth, especially the one that we often preach to the lost: God accepts you just the way you are. “But God does accept sinners just the way they are, that’s what his unconditional love is all about.” See how clever he is? He has fooled even you.
If we are going to be clear on anything in the Bible, let’s be clear about the gospel. The Bible teaches that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Furthermore, God is so holy, that He cannot allow sinners into his presence and is, by nature, obligated to condemn them (Romans 6:23a). God, therefore, cannot accept any sinner as he is. No. God’s acceptance of any sinner is certainly conditional. It is conditioned upon the work of Christ alone. Jesus said, “No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). If you want to see God, commune with Him, be reconciled to Him, you cannot come as you are. You must come through Jesus Christ. He took the outpouring of God’s wrath that was meant for you upon himself. He bore your curse. And when he died, he pleased the Father completely, thereby imputing (transferring) his righteousness to you. By his death and resurrection, he was able to raise you to newness of life and change what was unacceptable to God about you. Dear friends, God never accepts me “just as I am”. He accepts me “as I am in Jesus Christ.” That is the Gospel, and it is better than unconditional love. It says, “God accepts you just as Christ is.”
We must be extremely careful not to fall for this satanic lie, as the gospel message is at stake. It is easy to do, too, because our enemy is not just a snake, but a crafty one at that. He created the false doctrine of self-love (esteem) that generates a need for acceptance, and then crafted a false message to meet it. The notion that God loves sinners unconditionally and accepts them just as they are may go over big with the multitudes of people in our culture who feel victimized by the lack of others’ acceptance, but it is not good news.
The Good News is what a loving God did for those who were not acceptable in His sight and stood condemned: He became their substitute and died in their place, to make them like His Son.