It is possible to live in an illusion of salvation or Christianity. This was the kind of life the Israelites lived in the days of the Prophet Isaiah. They were religious, given stipulated sacrifices and offerings, burning incense, and observing ordained festivals, yet God was not happy with them (Isaiah 1:11-15). God is not pleased with religious rituals without repentance and obedience to His Word Psalm 51:15-16 says:
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.
The Israelites thought all that God required of them was religion but in the Old Testament, the fundamental thing God required was morality (Isaiah 1:16-18). Religious rituals without virtues in the Old Testament equaled nothing. Morality was the substance and yardstick through which religion was measured. When religion is being practiced at the expense of the good of humanity, void of morality, it becomes a problem and displeases God.
That is the message Christ Himself passes through the parable of the Good Samaritan: the priest and Levite on their way to Jerusalem for religious reasons have to pass the man beaten on the way the other way round so that they would not defile themselves and not be able to perform rituals at the temple (Luke 10:30-37). The parable concluded that the Good Samaritan, a man from a race considered condemned sinners by the ancient Jews, was more righteous than both the priest and Levite. This is a food for taught! The apostles of Jesus have, in their different styles, addressed the issue of the need for morality to be the bedrock for religious activities. Paul puts it this way: 1 Corinthians 13:1-3:
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
John the beloved of Christ in his melancholic tune also reflects this emphatically in his first later in 1 John 4:19-21:
We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
However, in the New Testament, both religious rituals and morality are short of God’s standard for righteousness because the work of salvation has been accomplished through Christ Jesus. The additional requirement for righteousness in the New Testament era is faith in the finished work of Christ (John 3:16, 6:28-29; Romans 1:17). Man’s effort for righteousness through moral laws has failed him because of the depravity of his nature to sin. Faith in Jesus, therefore, is the highest point of religious practice that brings ultimate victory over self, sin, and Satan. Faith in Christ however, is not a substitute for a moral life. Unfortunately, some Christians think that faith relieves them from moral obligations so that they live without restraint.
On the contrary, as we have already highlighted above, the New Testament holds us accountable for moral living. Morality is the way by which we bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit, shine the light of the gospel, and then reflect the image and glory of God inside of us. And a moral life, as discussed by James, is the practical outworking or exercise of our faith (James 2:14-26). The most unfortunate thing is to simply be a religious person with neither morality nor faith in Christ. A mere look at the contemporary church makes it clear that this is the worrisome situation of some if not most, who claim they are Christians.
The church has come to a situation, like the Jews in the days of Isaiah, where it has a well-structured religious form and system but without morality and faith. This could probably be because it is easier to simply be a ritual Christian than to be moralistic and it is even more difficult to have faith in Christ. Faith is subtle. While we go about with our frenzied rituals, it lies in the clouds of our hearts. Therefore, it is divine to have faith in God. We need God’s help to see and live beyond ourselves trusting God for our lives. A Christian without virtues is no really different from an unbeliever. The ripple effect is that the church has not been able to confront the world of its evil, and when the church cannot challenge the world of its evil, the only option is to compromise.
This is one of the major reasons why the impact of the church is not being felt in society today. A man can be both religious and moral in church, but without faith in Christ, he is not a Christian at all; only time shall tell! Sad that the church has many of these kinds, as Jesus reveals that the church will always have (Matt 13:36-43), but the church has care less. Instead, it is so submerged into her religious rituals so much such that even such sinners are celebrated and exalted into places of glory! This calls for a serious order by the church leadership and self-examination by an individual Christian!