None but the guilty value the mercy of God. If you are not a sinner, Christ as Saviour has nothing to do with you. He came into the world to save sinners. This may not be logical to our minds and hearts, but it is the logic of Calvary. If we want mercy, we must come as beggers to God.
Rags are the clothes of beggers.
The more you can stink, the worse you look, the better it goes for you when you beg. When you come to God confessing, paint the picture of your need as black as you can. Do not go and clean yourself up first before you try to come to God. Do not try to make yourself look good and smell good, but go to God in those awful stinking rags, go just as you are.