Is morality a heresy? Morality is a heresy when it becomes a substitute
for our life in Christ. Morality becomes a substitute for our life in
Christ when we reduce religion to a moral code, when we reduce the
faith to a system of correct behaviour instead of a struggle to purify
the conscience and acquire the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We cannot
acquire the Holy Spirit by means of correct behaviour, which is just a
matter of human works and legalistic works at that. Such an approach
fills us with so much judgement and condemnation and arrogance and
self-righteousness that the Holy Spirit remains alien to us. We begin
to think ourselves to be moral and everyone who is not like us somehow
immoral.

We
set ourselves as the criterion of morality, but there can be no true
morality without the inner transformation of our person. Perfect
holiness consists only in perfect love, not in correct behaviour.
Righteousness does not consist in correct behaviour, but in genuine
co-suffering love and pure faith. No deed has any moral value unless it
proceeds from the heart motivated by love. Otherwise it is simply
ethical or correct behaviour according to one or another system of
law—a human work which anyone in any culture, with or without faith in
God, can attain to. The Old Testament law could help to preserve
society but it could not save anyone, no matter how diligently they
fulfilled it to the letter. Moreover, since it could not transform the
heart, it could not even preserve the nation from falling constantly
away from God. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the only One who fulfilled
perfect righteousness was motivated solely by love, co-suffering love.
And that is why our Lord Jesus Christ became our righteousness on the
Cross, and imputed that righteousness to us through faith. Only
righteousness is the fulfilment of the law and righteousness consists
only in perfect love. The self-righteousness, the arrogance that we
have which makes us judge and condemn others, by which we put our foot
on the heads of the weak and push them deeper into darkness by our
arrogance—this is the apex of unrighteousness and it is a great sin.
That is ultimately what our struggle of prayer is all about, trying to
acquire perfect, co-suffering love in ourselves, becoming truly
conformed to the image of Christ, so that we may actually share in His
glory, the glory of the Living God, receiving by grace through faith,
"the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." being "changed
into the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord."
(Phil 3:14, 2 Cor. 3:18)