Modern Judeo-Christians believe that professing their belief in God will free them from the guilt of doing less than their best. Their belief is equally ineffective in its aim as the atheists’, who believe that professing disbelief in God will free them from the guilt of doing less than their best.
Somewhere between Christ’s resurrection and now, churches replaced righteousness with religiousness. This is not only wrong, it is strictly antithetical to what Jesus taught, did, and is.
You will have a hard time finding a church that believes that you have to stop sinning to be saved. It seems that every Judeo-Christian congregation teaches people to break God’s commandments or, at least, that they can be saved while still doing so.
The purpose of Jesus’ sacrifice was not to provide mankind with a way to avoid the justice of God. Rather, he came to provide a way that God's justice could result in their blessing, through their choice to faithfully learn and live his instructions:
And for this cause have I been lifted up; therefore, according to the power of the Father I will draw all men unto me, that they may be judged according to their works. (3 Nephi 27:15)[^1]
Jesus' ministry, sacrifice, and resurrection wasn’t to excuse you for present and continued sin, but to give you a way of being forgiven of past sin and a sufficient reason to discontinue future sin.
If you believe in Jesus, you will act, think, and desire as he did and does. If you do not act, think, and desire as he did and does, you do not believe in him.
5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1)
Church goers will be surprised to learn that God doesn’t care how much time they spend at church, but rather how completely and consistently they do his will in their lives.
Though couched in the worship forms of his time, a poignant description of what the Lord thinks of the religious rites of people who do not actually obey him is provided by Isaiah:
11 For what purpose are your abundant sacrifices to me? says Jehovah. I have had my fill of offerings of rams and fat of fatted beasts; the blood of bulls and sheep and he-goats I do not want.
12 When you come to see me, who requires you to trample my courts so?
13 Bring no more worthless offerings; they are as a loathsome incense to me. As for convening meetings at the New Month and on the Sabbath, wickedness with the solemn gathering I cannot approve.
14 Your monthly and regular meetings my soul detests. They have become a burden on me; I am weary of putting up with them.
15 When you spread forth your hands, I will conceal my eyes from you; though you pray at length, I will not hear—your hands are filled with blood.
16 Wash yourselves clean: remove your wicked deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil.
17 Learn to do good: demand justice, stand up for the oppressed; plead the cause of the fatherless, appeal on behalf of the widow.
(Isaiah 1, Gileadi Translation)
3 But whoever slaughters an ox is as one who kills a man, and whoever sacrifices a lamb, as one who breaks a dog’s neck; whoever presents a grain offering is as one who offers swine’s blood, and whoever burns incense, as one who venerates idols. Just as they have preferred to go their own ways, their souls delighting in their abominations,
4 ...They did what was evil in my eyes; they chose to do what was not my will. (Isaiah 66, Gileadi Translation)
God desires for you to worship him “in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24) You can’t worship God in truth without actually doing what he says. During his mortal ministry, the Lord asked:
And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? (Luke 6:46)
Paul explained:
13 For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another; (Romans 2)
God wants obedience to him, and no amount of religious rites or ritual can substitute.
“What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me [without your repentance]?” Says the Lord. “I have had enough of [your] burnt offerings of rams And the fat of well‐fed cattle [without your obedience]; And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls or lambs or goats [offered without repentance]. (Isaiah 1:11, AMP)
God wants you to act, think, and desire as he does. He can teach you how to do this, but not if your life is already filled with church activities and your mind is already filled with the idea that professing belief in him somehow gives you the right to continue to disobey him.