Most of us spend our days running a quiet, exhausting race against our own guilt. We screw up, promise ourselves we’ll do better tomorrow, and then watch our best intentions fall apart the next time temptation hits. Before long, it feels like God is just standing over us with a pen, waiting to tally up our next mistake.

Hugh Binning got this. He was a 17th-century Scottish preacher who died young, but he understood the human heart surprisingly well. In The Sinner’s Sanctuary—a set of 40 sermons on Romans 8—he offers a way out of that loop. His point is simple: stop relying on your own shaky willpower, and run to the shelter God actually provided.

If you’re burned out on religion, here are four truths from Binning that hit right where it hurts.

1. Christ doesn’t do half-baked rescues

Binning points out right off the bat that Jesus doesn’t save people by halves. When God steps into a person’s life, he deals with their past record and breaks the power of their current habits.

A lot of people want a free pass out of judgment, but they still want to hang onto the very habits that are wrecking them. True grace changes both your standing in God’s court and what you actually want out of life. As Binning puts it, forgiving you and fixing you go hand in hand:

“He takes away the curse of the law, being made under it; and then he takes away the sin against the law by his holy Spirit.”

That’s huge news if you’re frustrated by your own slowness to change. Jesus’ death pays for the damage, and his Spirit slowly chips away at your bad patterns. You aren’t left to clean up your own life alone.

2. You have to own the damage before you can get fixed

One of Binning’s sharpest points is that nobody looks for a rescue until they realize they’re in real trouble. Culture constantly tells us to protect our self-esteem, but Binning says spiritual health actually starts when we stop making excuses for our behavior.

It’s easy to blame stress, bad luck, or other people. But God asks us to stop dodging and just agree with his assessment of our hearts:

“He justifieth none but self-condemned and lost sinners.”

Until you’re honest about your situation, you’ll just keep trying to fix yourself with self-help routines and fresh schedules. Think of it this way: nobody calls an ambulance if they think they just have a slight headache. Once you admit how bad off you are, the gospel stops being a nice theory and becomes an actual lifeline.

3. Stop waiting until you look presentable to seek help

So many people fall into a subtle trap: they think they need to get their life under control before they can approach God. They assume they need to feel sorrier, act better, or get a clean streak going before they dare ask for mercy.

Binning calls this out for what it is: complete nonsense.

“What madness is this? I am so unclean, I will not come to the fountain to wash.”

Your mess is the exact reason you need the fountain in the first place. God isn’t asking you to bring a list of accomplishments to the table; he asks you to come with empty, needy hands.

4. Being a decent person isn’t the same as being spiritually alive

It’s surprisingly easy to confuse good manners with actual spiritual life. Binning warns that plenty of people live polite, respectable lives without ever knowing God. They go to church, avoid major scandals, and help out in their neighborhoods, yet everything they do is still centered around themselves.

“It is not what you are before the world can prove you spiritual men, though it may prove many of you carnal.”

Real faith isn’t about running through a religious checklist to prove you’re a good person. It’s a day-by-day, step-by-step reliance on God that comes out of gratitude. You don’t follow him to get him to like you; you follow him because he already reached out to yo