Do I need to clean up my life before God will save me?
No, you do not need to clean up your life before God saves you. Salvation is not earned by self-reformation; a person is dead in sin and cannot make themselves alive. God takes sinners just as they are, and He infuses divine life and power that comes with salvation.
Les teaches with the illustration of an old dead battery. You can wash it and make it shine, but when you turn the key nothing happens because it is still dead until outside power is brought in. That is exactly what salvation is. You and I cannot clean up our life, yet many people think they can, saying, "When I get my act together and clean up my life, then I'll become a Christian." Les explains that is not the way it works. God takes us just where we are, as sinners, and He is the One who infuses divine life and power that comes with salvation. Before salvation, a person is only body and soul, with the sin nature ruling supreme, in bondage to the sin nature and to Satan. People may inhibit a few things but are not in control. So cleaning up the outside does not save; God must give life from outside.
More Questions
Do I need to clean up my life before I get saved?
God does not expect people to straighten up and clean up their lives before approaching Him for salvation; He saves everybody exactly where they are, and then He does the work of regeneration.