Absolute holiness or morality in itself does not save us. Only true conversion can save us and that is something that we cannot do ourselves, no matter how strong our profession of Christianity is, or how many times we "accept" Christ, go to church, do Christian activities, even preach the Gospel and pastor churches, speak in tongues, prophesy, try to cast out demons and all the other stuff that Christians do.
I don't think that a lot of people fully realize that just accepting Christ is not conversion or salvation. Christ has to accept us, and that can only come through conversion - and conversion is not automatic. It is a definite work of the Holy Spirit and there is a real and definite transformation in the heart and spirit of a believer. Just saying the sinner's prayer and putting on the Christian "badge" is not enough and a lot of people who do that and no more will find themselves in hell.
Believing the Gospel and turning to Christ is just the first step. Then the believer earnestly seeks God through prayer and the Word until there is the definite experience of conversion and there is absolute and definite evidence that the conversion to Christ has taken place. For God to do this in a person, He has to see clearly that the believer is fully committed to Jesus Christ as total and complete Lord of his life and conduct, otherwise He won't do it, and the professing believer will find the gates of Heaven locked against him. When that believer, in the judgment, asks Christ why he can't come in to Heaven, the Lord will say to him, "You were very religious all right, but you did not give Me your whole heart!"
This is why the gate to eternal life is very narrow, and few there are who find it. I would say that at least 50% of all church goers are just religious and unconverted, because they have depended on their profession of Christianity, and not pressed into God to be fully converted to Christ; therefore they have one foot in the Christian religion and the other foot still firmly planted in the world. And the Scripture says that a friend of the world is no friend of Christ.
I can't express this enough: that true conversion is not something we can do, no matter how religious we are in the Christian faith. We can be utterly and absolutely religious in every respect, but if we are not converted to Christ, we are lost! And God is the only one who can do it in us. And it doesn't happen until the religious person seeks God with all his heart and soul for it and stays waiting on God until it happens. It may have to be sought with tears and pleading until it happens. But when it happens, the truly converted Christian knows all about it, because he knows that God has genuinely transformed him in his heart and spirit.
Then, and only then, does he hunger and thirst after total holiness, without which, he will never see the Lord.
Many, who are actually unconverted and shy away from the strictness of holiness that God requires, use legalism as an excuse for why they think they don't have to be strict about their personal holiness, and use it as an excuse to keep their favourite lust or covetousness.