Why do I believe personal holiness (empowered through the Holy Spirit) is so important? It is because we are saved by what we do. Not by the works that we strive for justification under our own power, rather the response of a faith saturated in the actions that bear witness to that belief. That is why the brother of Jesus tell us that faith without works is dead. It matters not if you believe in Jesus for your salvation, if you choose to remain in sin, you will not find eternal life.
If you are in a church that preaches that it really does not matter if you sin because you are born again, let the words of Jesus stir you to repentance. For even after all of the grace given in John 3:16, the full context of that verse is filtered through the last verse in the same chapter.
“The one who believes in the Son has eternal life; but the one who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” John 3:36
If your church is approving sexual immorality or justifying people who live openly in sin, the Lord, in His great mercy, is calling you out of those broken systems of religion. For it is not through ritual that we have access to God. It is through the sanctification of our hearts made possible by means of the blood of Christ.
Faith only equals belief when it is accompanied by obedience to the laws of Christ. Don’t fall short of the prize because you chose to listen to a religious organization rather than the Word of God.
Holiness Unto the Lord