The preaching in far too many mainstream religions is far too frequently an easy on the ears type of sermon, of words so spoken which imply that there are indeed shortcuts to Heaven, or if not those exact words, forgiveness and acceptance, thereof, for those that believe; and therefore the receipt of, so it would seem, that eternal "get out of jail" card. No matter the exact words so said, or the beliefs so held, even those that are true and sincere to that so spoken, the truth of the matter always rises above the conveniences of a soft religious faith, especially that creed which asks little or nothing from its parishioners, and apparently demands nothing of substance from them in their actions, except to believe, as well as often a corresponding deposit of some coinage, for assurance, of such.
But it must be asked, though, to believe in what? To believe that our savior Christ took our sins, upon Himself, and that therefore it so follows that it matters not what we do on a given day, or what we have done in the past, as long as we believe in His redemption of us, that we therefore are thus assured of a place in Heaven with God. It would seem, though, that with this type of belief, that this would reflect that every day and every hour of every day in some corner of this world, or even within our own hearts, Christ is being crucified, again and again and again, into perpetuity; and that it so signifies that by us doing little or nothing of real merit or worth, and thereby not correcting our own behavior, that we have not done our sacred duty to make this world a better place by our actions and by our deeds, which we should be doing in the here and now for the betterment of our community and our people, so that we are, in essence, good for something.
This means that to simply believe in Christ, and what Christ so represents is never going to be good enough; for those that have the right kind of belief, must take it upon their shoulders to recognize that they have an inherent moral obligation, to demonstrate their faithfulness to that belief, by living their life in such a manner that Christ is known, by who and what we really are, and through the thoughts and thereby the decisions, so of, we do so make. What each one of us accomplishes, matters; and what we need to accomplish foremost is to successfully throw off all that which cripples us from becoming what we were always meant to be, which consists of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and the demonstration of self-control, all done on behalf of those that we congregate with, day-by-day.
Those that profess that they are Christian, but fail to live the good attributes of being a Christian, are not Christian, despite whatever words or belief that they so espouse. Of course, none of us are perfect, but the difference between someone that knows Christ as compared to someone who just has that soft belief in Christ, is that the former is willing to die, if need be, or to sacrifice their selfishness as required, to thereby do what needs to be done and will risk themselves for the betterment of the good cause; whereas the later, when instructed to rise up and to do their duty for their faith, will just pretend that they haven't heard that small still voice, believing that they won't be held accountable for such, when, in fact, that was the true test of their belief.